TOKYO – If you play with fire, eventually, you’ll get burned.
That’s the tough lesson the young United States team learned the hard way against Taiwan in their second game of the 2024 WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome on Friday, which they lost to Chinese Taipei 8-2.
Chinese Taipei put at least one runner on base in eight of nine innings, and sent 10 men to the plate and scored five runs in the top of the seventh. In all, Chinese Taipei torched the United States pitchers for 14 hits.
With the win, Chinese Taipei keeps hope alive for a berth in Sunday evening’s championship game, while the loss by the United States has all but ensured them a spot in the third-place game on Sunday afternoon.
After escaping jams in the first three innings, the United States, ranked No. 5 in the world, surrendered a pair of runs to Chinese Taipei in the fourth. Chang Chen-Yu ripped an RBI double down the right field line that was fair by inches, scoring catcher Chia-Cheng Lin from second to make it 1-0. The next batter, Chen-Wei Chen, crushed a triple past of the outstretched glove of United States right fielder Justin Crawford and off the right field wall and, scoring Chang to make it 2-0.
Termarr Johnson led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to right field, and pinch hitter Willie Maciver hit a double down the left field line. Maciver got in ahead of the tag, going into second base with his right hand and avoiding the swipe from second baseman Tung-Hua Yueh. Chinese Taipei challenged the play at second base and the call was upheld, setting up second and third with no outs.
That brought Tseng out of the dugout to summon relief pitcher Chih-Hsuan Wang to replace Kuo-Hao Chiang, who threw one inning, allowing three hits, two walks and notching two strikeouts.
The first batter Chiang faced, Justin Crawford, lifted a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Johnson to get the United States on the board and make it 2-1.
Tseng again came out of the dugout to bring on Hsien-Yen Chuang, who got Matt Shaw to ground out to Cheng-Yu Chang. Chang made a diving play to his glove side at third and threw Shaw out at first for the final out of the bottom of the fourth, keeping it a 2-1 game and stranding Simpson at second base.
“Zac Grotz started off, and really didn’t have his best stuff. And you can see in the early innings, I think in the first three innings, he might have had seven or eight base runners off of them,” United States manager Mike Scioscia said following the game.
Scioscia put Antonio Mendez on the mound for the top of the fifth, after Sam Benschoter threw 1 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, two earned runs, one walk, and two strikeouts.
But Chieh-Kai Pan cracked a solo home run that went 408 feet over the right center field wall to extend the lead to 3-1 for Chinese Taipei.
The United States cut the deficit to one run when Colby Tomas cracked a solo home run over the left-center field wall, his second of the Super Round, to make it 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth.
In the top of the seventh, the Chinese Taipei offense erupted for five runs. Kun-Yu Chiang hit a bases-clearing triple into the right center field gap, scoring Chih-Cheng Chiu, Giljegiljaw, and Pan make it 6-2. The next batter, Yueh, drilled an RBI single to right field to score Chiang and make it 7-2, and later scored the fifth run of the frame when Li Lin hit into a fielder’s choice.
“Even though we made some good pitches, they were able to hold their battle back and hit some balls hard,” Scioscia said. “They had some key hits, particularly in the seventh inning. …They were all tough outs, and for a while, obviously, we made good pitches and we stayed in the game. But it just got out of hand in the seventh inning and those guys, they used the whole field and made some cuts and key hits with guys in scoring position.”
Less than 24 hours after the disappointment of the loss, Scioscia and his team will be back on the Tokyo Dome field.
“The American team is a very good team, but we’re not looking forward to the next two games, we’re looking forward to the first pitch tomorrow,” Scioscia said. I think if we keep that in context, it’s going to help these guys not only play better, stay focused, and give us the best chance to play well tomorrow.
“…Over the course of their careers, [they’re] going to have some games that are really tough, and you’ve got to turn the page. Sometimes that page gets heavy. So we haven’t played well the first two games here. That’s in the past.”
ON TO TOMORROW – “We will stick with everybody coming together to play the game no matter how good the Japanese pitching staff is, we start from zero from the first pitch until the final out with building up. The most important thing that we have to do is to work together as a team and we have to focus on the details that everyone has to do their own job,” Chinese Taipei manager Hao-Jiu Tseng said during the post game press conference about tomorrow’s game against Japan.
NOTEBOOK – The last time that Chinese Taipei played the United States at an international senior event was at the Premier12 on Nov. 15, 2019 in the Super Round, where the U.S. won 3-2 at the Tokyo Dome. The United States will play World No. 4 Venezuela on November 22 at 12 p.m. JST. That game will start on November 21 at 10 p.m. EST. Chinese Taipei will play No. 1-ranked Japan on November 22 at 7 p.m. JST and at 5 a.m. EST at the Tokyo Dome. All of the remaining 2024 Premier12 tournament games are streamed on https://gametime.sport/ and DAZN with a paid subscription.
Photo: Chen Chen-Wei of Chinese Taipei celebrates a triple against the United States at the 2024 WBSC Premier12 at the Tokyo Dome. (Photo Courtesy WBSC)
