Poor pitching, coupled with a lack of timely hitting led to an ugly 13-3 defeat at the hands of Team Italy, as Taiwan dropped the opening game of the 2006 XVI Intercontinental Cup Baseball Championship in Taichung on Thursday night.
The hosts committed the cardinal sin of underestimating their opponents, spotting the Italians a seven-run cushion after only three innings of play and never recovered.
"I never thought we would lose by as much as we did," a shocked Taiwanese skipper Yeh Chih-shien said after enduring the worst defeat to Italy by Team Taiwan in tournament history.
A wild Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen (President Lions) whose fastball only topped out at 138kph compared to his normal 148kph, allowed a run in the opening inning to the Italians on an RBI single by designated hitter Max De Biase and found himself in a world of trouble in the top of the third, giving up three runs on as many hits before being relieved by fellow right-hander Lin Keh-chien.
Lin, who was tagged for four runs while recording no outs in the third, not only could not stop the bleeding, but added fuel to the fire, as Team Italy capitalized on a total breakdown by the Taiwanese pitching to erupt for six unanswered runs in the inning and claim a shocking 7-0 advantage.
Taiwan's second reliever Lee Cheng-chang finally stopped Italy from doing as it pleased with four scoreless innings of relief. But it was too little too late as the Italians ultimately solved him in the eighth with three doubles that knocked Lee out of the game before ringing up four more runs off lefty Yang Yao-hsuin in the ninth to end the slaughter.
Offensively for Taiwan, a 0-for-13 effort by the heart of the order, consisting of Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien (Macoto Cobras), Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan (Sinon Bulls) and top amateur slugger Lin Yi-chuan, led to unusually inefficient run production, managing only three runs on the eleven hits collected in the game.
Any three of the dozen runners that Taiwan stranded over the first seven innings could have made it a brand new ball game because Italy did not pull away until the final two innings.
The loss set Taiwan back as it tries to reshuffle a starting rotation that has lost confidence while trying to forget about this ugly loss in the face of the stiff competition to come.
With tough contests against Japan, Australia and South Korea over the weekend, Yeh must find a way to rally his troops in a hurry before the 10-day tournament turns into an embarrassment for the hosts.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS