Following a mercy rule loss to Japan the night before, Chinese Taipei kept its World Baseball Classic hopes alive with a mercy rule victory of its own, defeating Czechia 14-0 on Saturday afternoon in front of a packed crowd at the Tokyo Dome.
Entering the game, Chinese Taipei had yet to score in the tournament after 3-0 and 13-0 losses to Australia and Japan, respectively. That changed in a big way as they erupted for 14 runs on 11 hits while stealing eight bases.
Stuart Fairchild led the charge, going 2 for 2 with four runs, two walks, a grand slam, and three stolen bases.
Chinese Taipei struck early in the first inning as a double steal and an errant throw by catcher Martin Cervenka allowed the first run to score. Yu Chang followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
In the second inning, Fairchild blew the game open with a grand slam off Jan Novak to extend the lead to 6-0.
Chinese Taipei continued to add on throughout the game. Chang drove in two more runs with a single in the fourth, and Chen-Wei Chen lifted a sacrifice fly in the fifth to push the lead to 9-0.
The game was put completely out of reach in the sixth inning when Chinese Taipei scored five more runs to push the lead to 14-0, triggering the tournament’s mercy rule after the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Taiwanese pitching staff also came through in a big way. Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang, Yu-Min Lin, Kai-Wei Lin, and Jyun-Yue Tseng combined for seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits while walking one and striking out 10. Zhuang earned the win after tossing 2 ⅔ scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Chinese Taipei, now 1-2, will face Korea in its final Pool C contest tomorrow and must win to have any chance of advancing to the knockout stage on a tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Czechia, now 0-3, has been mathematically eliminated from the tournament after losses to Korea and Australia, but will play one final game against host Japan on Tuesday.
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Photo: Taiwan’s Stuart Fairchild runs past the third base as he celebrates his grand slam home run in the second inning of a World Baseball Classic game between Taiwan and Czechia in Tokyo, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
