Taiwan proved no match for Cuba in their second game at this year’s World Baseball Challenge, dropping a 6-3 decision at the Citizen Field Park in Prince George, Canada, on Sunday evening to even their record in the tournament to 1-1.
Starter Chen Kuan-ju, winner of Taiwan’s first game against a different Cuban squad in the World Port Baseball Tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, late last month, lasted less than an inning as the Cubans took him to school with a pair of homers — the first, a three-run shot by Frederich Cepeda and the second, a solo blast by Jose Abreu, to take a surprising 4-0 lead.
Even though Taiwanese skipper Chen Wei-cheng sent his bullpen to the rescue, with reliever Lin Kuan-han allowing only one run over the next 3-2/3 innings, the damage was already done as Taiwan found themselves trailing Cuba 0-5 after four innings of play.
“The two homers were quite a humbling experience for [Chen Kuan-ju],” Chen Wei-cheng said after the game.
His pitchers ended up giving up a total of four home runs in the game to lose this one long before the final out.
Cuba padded their lead by a run in the fifth that made it 6-0, before Taiwan finally got on the board in the top of the sixth with Lin Han tripling off Cuban starter Vladimir Garcia and scoring on Huang Chih-pei’s single that chased Garcia.
Lin scored Taiwan’s only other runs in the game on a two-run homer off reliever Vichoandri Odelin in the seventh that made the final score somewhat more respectable.
Taiwan had yesterday off to prepare for battle before this afternoon’s contest against Japan, where the winners will have the inside track for advancing to the next round of play.
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