Taiwan takes Asian Games baseball bronze after beating China 5-1

台灣以5比1擊敗中國 奪得亞運棒球銅牌

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan defeated China 5-1 on Sunday to win the bronze medal in the men’s baseball tournament at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Left-handed pitcher Lin Yu-min (林昱珉), who plays in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A system, delivered a dominant performance, throwing eight scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and striking out 10. He retired the first 13 batters he faced, per UDN.

With a 90-pitch limit set by his club, Lin exited after throwing 81 pitches. Wang Cheng-hao (王政浩) took over in the ninth, surrendering one run before closing out the victory.

Lin’s performance was backed by 13 hits, with Chen Min-sih (陳敏賜) and Yang Po-hsiang (陽柏翔) each collecting two hits and two RBIs.

Taiwan took the lead in the second inning. After a single and a hit batter put two runners on base with two outs, ninth-place hitter Yang lined a two-run triple to give Taiwan a 2-0 advantage.

Taiwan maintained its lead through the middle innings before breaking the game open in the seventh. With one out, pinch hitter Yang Chen-yu (楊振裕) and Huang Wei-sheng (黃韋盛) hit consecutive singles. Chen then hit a two-run double with two outs, followed by an RBI double from Kao Yu-wei (高育瑋), putting Taiwan ahead 5-0, per UDN.

The victory came two days after Taiwan defeated China 9-1 in the Super Round. Taiwan missed the gold-medal game after losing 7-3 to host Japan in another Super Round matchup Saturday. Taiwan finished the round with a 1-2 record, setting up Sunday’s bronze-medal rematch with China.

Baseball became an official medal sport at the Asian Games in 1994. Taiwan’s medal haul now comprises one gold, four silver, and four bronze medals.