BASEBALL/Taiwan escapes mercy-rule loss to Spain in WBCQ opener

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) At the World Baseball Classic Qualifier (WBCQ) opener in Taipei on Friday, Spain showed Taiwan just how unpredictable the game can be.

About three months after winning the WBSC Premier12 for its first-ever world championship in a major senior-level tournament, Team Taiwan was humbled by a 12-5 drubbing against the European powerhouse as it narrowly escaped the mercy rule.

The mercy rule applies when a team leads by 15 runs after five innings or 10 runs at the end of the seventh inning.

According to local media outlet SET News, Taiwan had dominated Spain in their previous four encounters over the past 37 years, including three victories at the World Championships in 1988, 2005 and 2007, and a 20-0 win at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Taiwan remained competitive early in the game thanks to Yu Chang's (張育成) two-run homer in the bottom of the third, though Spain had already scored four runs in the first four innings.

However, the game soon slipped out of reach as Taiwan's bullpen yielded six runs in the fifth inning.

Wu Yu-cheng (伍祐城) got ahead in the count with two strikes and no balls in all four of his at-bats but struggled to put batters away with his sliders, which Spain's hitters capitalized on, as commentator Tseng Wen-cheng (曾文誠) pointed out.

Although Lu Yen-cheng (呂彥青), who relieved Wu, managed to retire the first two batters, he then allowed three consecutive batters to reach base on a walk and two hit-by-pitches before being pulled from the mound.

A two-run homer by Gabriel Lino in the top of the sixth nearly put Taiwan at risk of a mercy-rule loss, but an RBI single by Wu Nien-ting (吳念庭) in the seventh inning kept the game alive.

Lin Wei-en (林維恩) had Taiwan’s best pitching performance, striking out three and allowing just one hit in a scoreless inning in the fourth.

While Taiwan frequently rotated its pitchers, using six in the first six innings, in an attempt to replicate its Premier12 success, Spain relied on Elian Leyva and Ramón Rosso for the first 5 2/3 innings.

"Spain clearly aimed to secure the first game with its two best pitchers, giving them greater flexibility for the upcoming games," commentator Wang Yi-hsuan (王翊亘) noted.

Taiwan will next face South Africa on Saturday and Nicaragua on Sunday.

Under tournament rules, the team with the best record after the first three games will secure a qualification spot, while the second- and third-place teams will face off in a do-or-die match at 7 p.m. next Tuesday for the final berth.