Chinese Taipei threw a wrench into Pool C of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday afternoon, edging Korea 5-4 in ten innings behind a strong start from Ruei-Yang Gu Lin and timely hitting.
Following two shutout losses to open the tournament, Chinese Taipei rebounded with two crucial wins and must await the results of Australia vs. Japan and Australia vs. Korea to determine whether they can advance to the quarterfinals via a second-place tiebreaker.
With Chinese Taipei’s win, Japan officially clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. Korea will face Australia tomorrow night. Australia controls its own destiny, but if it loses to Japan tonight, Korea’s hopes will remain alive. In that case, Korea would need a win to potentially advance through a tiebreaker.
Yu Chang opened the scoring with a solo home run off Hyun Jin Ryu in the second inning, igniting the packed Taiwanese crowd at the Tokyo Dome.
Korea chased Gu Lin from the game in the fifth and tied it when Shay Whitcomb bounced into a double play that brought home Hyun Min Ahn.
Tsung-Che Cheng put Chinese Taipei back in front in the sixth with a solo shot, but Do Yeong Kim answered with a towering two-run home run to left field off Wei-En Lin to give Korea its first lead of the day.
Gu Lin pitched admirably for Chinese Taipei, allowing just two hits and one run while working into the fifth inning on 59 pitches. Lin then added 2 ⅓ innings in relief, striking out four while allowing two runs.
Ryu went three innings for Korea, throwing 50 pitches and allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts. Gwak Been followed with 3 ⅓ innings, giving up one run on two hits while striking out three.
In the seventh, Chinese Taipei put the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, but Dane Dunning entered and immediately induced a double play to end the threat.
With two outs in the eighth, the game flipped again when Stuart Fairchild hit an opposite-field two-run homer off Dunning to give Chinese Taipei a 4-3 lead.
However, Korea responded in the bottom half as Do Yeong Kim delivered again, lining a two-out RBI double to tie the game at 4-4.
The game entered extra innings, where Chinese Taipei took the lead with two bunts, including a squeeze by Kun-Yu Chiang that brought home Chieh-Hsien Chen, who fractured his hand earlier in the tournament but had entered as a pinch-runner for the ghost runner.
In the bottom half of the tenth, Jyun-Yue Tseng recorded the save. With one out, Nien-Ting Wu made a nice play at first base on a hard grounder by Hyeseong Kim, throwing home to tag out Ju Won Kim to preserve the 5-4 lead. Do Yeong Kim then flew out to right to end the game.
___
Photo: Taiwan players celebrate after defeating South Korea during a World Baseball Classic game between South Korea and Taiwan on Sunday, March 8, 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
