Chinese Taipei pulled it out, though they certainly did their best to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
For a while, though, it was dicey, and the team with a six-sided die as a lucky totem in the dugout — each side of the die had six pips, as six is a lucky number — and ranked No. 2 in the World Baseball Rankings looked like they might not qualify for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Some of the white-knuckle ride for Chinese Taipei, which shocked Samurai Japan in the 2024 WBSC Premier12 championship game, could be chalked up to their having elected to bring a younger team to the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. Their pitching staff for the Premier12 had an average age of 27.7, and posted a 1.80 ERA through the tournament, while going into the final game of the Taipei Qualifier, the Chinese Taipei staff had an average age of 23.1 and an ERA of 6.00.
They must have thought it was going to be easy. After all, how good could Spain really be?
Well, it turned out that Spain, which appeared in the 2013 World Baseball Classic but hasn’t qualified since, brought a potent roster comprised largely of players from Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. And by “largely comprised,” all but one player on the Spain roster — pitcher Jorge Balboa — was born elsewhere. But so it goes in the WBC, where the eligibility rules on who may represent a country are much looser than in the Olympics to make the games both competitive and compelling.
And so when Spain swatted Chinese Taipei 12-5 in the opener at the Taipei Qualifier for both countries, it immediately put the No. 2 ranked national program in the world in a tough spot. With Nicaragua having beaten South Africa 2-1 and then Spain 2-1 in 10 innings, there was no way for Chinese Taipei to stay out of Tuesday’s final qualifier game.
Ultimately, Chinese Taipei got the job done and qualified for the 2026 World Baseball Classic with a 6-3 win, but not without plenty of drama at the Taipei Dome.
In the bottom of the seventh with one out and a runner on first, Yi-Lei Sun came on for Chinese Taipei and nearly gave the game away. He immediately walked Jesus Ustariz, then gave up a single to Rusber Estrada to load the bases. Luckily, he was able to settle down and strike out Edison Valerio looking and Carlos Colmenarez swinging to retire the side, and Spain wouldn’t threaten again over the final two innings.
Certainly, it helps to be able to bring a pitcher like Sun out of the bullpen, who can mix low-90s sinkers with upper-90s fastballs to get strikeouts.
The lessons to be learned from the Taipei Qualifier, perhaps, are two-fold: don’t discount any opponent in international baseball, and the World Baseball Rankings don’t really tell us as much as the WBSC would like us to think that they do.
If you look over the rest of the results from the Taipei Qualifier, South Africa, which went 0-3, lost a one-run game to Nicaragua, which went 3-0 and qualified without having to play for their WBC lives. And while South Africa lost their other two round robin games 9-1, they didn’t have any disastrous innings like the Japan Breeze did at the 2025 Caribbean Series. They got beaten by better teams, sure, but they didn’t beat themselves.
Spain, which lost a win-and-you’re-in game for the third straight time at a WBC Qualifier, crushed Chinese Taipei in their first meeting and lost a one-run game to Nicaragua. The reigning European champions have a strong program that is only getting stronger as more players from the Caribbean come to the Iberian Peninsula to play in their domestic league. They’ll be back.
Chinese Taipei is ranked No. 2 in the world based on their accomplishments, which include winning the 2024 WBSC Premier12, as well having positive results at various other international competitions, including age group championships and regional events going down as far as the U-12 age group.
But even at No. 2 in the world, for whatever reason, Chinese Taipei gambled and sent a young team to an event where they had to play for their lives in a winner-take-all game on home soil.
It was dramatic. It was exciting. And it probably didn’t have to be as dramatic or as exciting as it was.
They rolled the dice and came up with a six.
If they do it again, they might not be so lucky.
