Team Taiwan’s warm-up game against a Japanese professional farm team yesterday morning was canceled due to poor weather, as the squad continued to prepare for the upcoming World Baseball Classic (WBC).
Team Taiwan was scheduled to face the Orix Buffaloes’ farm team at Sokken Stadium in Miyazaki, Kyushu. However, persistent rain brought a cancelation, forcing the Taiwanese team to pivot to indoor practice instead.
The cancelation of the warm-up game means that Team Taiwan has only one opportunity to fine-tune their play with the full roster, in a game today against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ farm team.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan play their first WBC game against Australia at the Tokyo Dome at 11am on Thursday.
Tsai Chi-chang, commissioner of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and national team coordinator, earlier said that unlike the Japanese and South Korean teams, Taiwanese players did not have official warm-up games scheduled at indoor stadiums. This is because Taiwan secured their WBC berth through the qualifying round rather than as an automatic seed, he said.
Asked about the change in schedule, Team Taiwan manager Tseng Hao-jiu expressed concern for his batters rather than his pitchers, saying that it is generally more difficult for batters to maintain their timing and “game feel” without live at-bat practice.
Tseng confirmed that Zhang Chun-wei, who was scheduled to start on the mound yesterday, would start today instead.
After the opener against Australia, Taiwan play Samurai Japan on Friday evening, the Czech Republic on Saturday morning, and South Korea on Sunday morning. Only the top two teams from the group advance to the knockout stage at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
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