WC:
Korean SP Doo-Sung Hwang threw a gem of a game, quieting Taiwan's offense and the rowdy home crowd. Hwang twirled a 1-hitter over 7 innings to go along with 5 K's and 1 walk. Taiwan's SP Chien-Fu Yang pitched fairly well, giving up 1 ER over 6 IP. Final score: South Korea 3 - Taiwan 0.
Box Score/V.O.D.
The disturbing part about the loss is that the batting lineup is only missing potentially 5 starters: OF Wei-Chu Lin, IF Yung-Chi Chen, IF Chin-Lung Hu, C Chih-Kang Kao and IF Kuo-Ching Kao. Of those 5 named, only 3 will be available to play in the Olympic Qualifiers. To make matters worse, the team South Korea sent to the WC was essentially its "B" team. We'll see a much stronger (SK) team at the Olympic Qualifiers in December. With the loss, Taiwan will be playing Mexico Sunday for 7th place in the WC (Taiwan is currently down 5-1 in the 8th inning as I type this). If the score holds up, Taiwan's 8th place finish would be better than its 2005 showing. However, Coach Kuo and any baseball fan in Taiwan can't be thrilled with how poorly the team finished in the tourney.
1 comment:
I watched most of the games here in Taiwan on TV and I must say I was very disappointed with the way this team played throughout the tournament. With the exception of a couple of games, the players played without any passion and seemed to just go through the motions.
The pitching hasn't been good with too many walks given that turned into runs. The hitting was worse. I can't believe that these CPBL (correct me if I'm wrong) players can't catch up to 150kmph fastballs. For example, during the US game, the entire Taiwanese offense was pretty much shut down by a power pitcher whose pitches, though fast, did not really have that much movement.
Defense was atrocious. The guy who played SS shouldn't be playing at all. I saw him commit at least 3 errors over two games that led to runs scored. Totally unexcusable. Our OFs probably have the worst arms out there. Every runner from 2b scored on routine singles. Finally, the coaching was terrible. Why didn't the Taiwan team attempt to steal that many bases? With our weak bats, playing "station to station" ball is just not going to do it.
Anyway, I hope they earn a spot for the Olympics but I'm not holding my breath. I'll root for them always but they need to show more heart than what they showed over the past week.
-Dodger fan in NY
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