Team USA silenced Taiwan's fans last night in Tienmu, on the back of solid pitching and a two-run homer from Joe Borchard followed by a triple from Mark Budzinski.
Jason Stanford and three relievers combined to hold Taiwan to just one run, putting Taiwan out of the World Cup and disappointing a crowd of 10,000.
The victory put the US in today's gold medal game against Cuba, which defeated Japan 3-1 in 11 innings in the other semifinal game.
PHOTO: AP
Stanford challenged Taiwan's hitters from the beginning. "I went out there with a game plan to throw fastballs inside and be aggressive around the plate," said Stanford, who struck out three over five innings.
"I was able to get ahead of the hitters and it worked to my advantage. We were able to score four runs and that's all we needed."
Shane Nance, Robbie Crabtree and Ed Vossberg finished the job, putting the US in the gold medal game for the first time since 1988.
"I thought our pitching and defense was superb," said US manager Terry Francona.
"All of our pitchers came in and threw strikes, and our defense made the plays. We had just enough hitting to beat a very good team."
The US scored first, on a mammoth 420-foot, two-run home run to straightway centerfield by Joe Brochard off Taiwan's Hsu Ming-chien (
Taiwan was able to respond as Cheng Chang-ming (
But it was all that Taiwan could generate, as the US pitchers retired 13 of the next 14 Taiwan batters.
"We just could not hit the US pitchers,' said Taiwan manager Lin Hua-wei (
"Their placement kept getting better and better as the game went on."
The US completed the scoring with a pair of runs in the sixth. Ken Huckaby doubled and Matt Erickson singled.
The US scored its final run when Cheng dropped a pop-up hit by Carl Crawford, allowing Erickson to race in from third.
Cuba 3, Japan 1
At Shinchuan Stadium, Cuba scored twice in the top of the 11th inning in an outstanding pitching dual between Japan's Shugo Fujii and Cuba's Jose Contrares.
Both starting pitchers carried a 1-1 game into the 11th.?
Cuba finally broke the tie in the top of the inning when Michel Enrique and Orestes Kindelan hit consecutive singles.
Final matchup
Team USA and Cuba go after the gold medal today, in a rematch of last year's thrilling Olympic final confrontation.
While the US fields a completely different team, the Cubans return many members of the squad that fell 4-0 to the US in Sydney.
US manager Terry Francona tapped Jason Philips as his starter. Philips is 2-0 in the tournament so far and has not given up a run.
The US is going for its third Baseball World Cup title and its first since 1974. The Cubans have won six-straight World Cup titles and 22 overall.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS