WBSC Premier12 Results: Drake Baldwin pinch hits, USA loses again

Drake Baldwin struck out to end the United States’s 8-2 loss

Drake Baldwin was once again left on the bench against Chinese Taipei, and the United States lost a big one as they will now likely find themselves in the bronze medal game unless they can pull off a huge win over Venezuela on the final day of the super round. Baldwin had an at bat with two runners on in the ninth inning, but like against Japan seemed overmatched. A first pitch fastball managed to nip the outside of the zone to get Baldwin behind, and he was on his heels after that swinging and missing at consecutive changeups to strike out. Baldwin has been struggling with secondary pitches throughout the tournament, possibly a result of both a lack of consistent playing time and playing older international players with more high level experience.

SCOREBOARD

Player of the Day
Chieh-Kai Pan, Chinese Taipei
2-2, HR, 3 BB, RBI

Pan and Chinese Taipei ran away with their game against the United States, setting up a key matchup against Japan to stay alive in the tournament. Pan was all over this game by reaching base five times, and in the fifth inning had a key home run to answer a scoring rally from the United States and keep Chinese Taipei’s lead comfortable. Pan found himself in the middle of each of Taipei’s rallies in the game.

Pitcher of the Day:
Hiroto Saiki, Japan
5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K

Saiki kept the tradition of wonderful starts from the Japanese rotation going, maintaining a lead for Japan across his five innings of solid work. While a home run in the second inning marred his final line he was otherwise in complete control, fully shutting down Venezuela as the Japanese lineup struggled to give him more runs to work with. Saiki and Japan are now in the driver’s seat to advance to the gold medal game.

CHINESE TAIPEI 0 — 2 UNITED STATES

box score | replay

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Chieh-Kai Pan, TPE: 2-2, HR, 3 BB
Colby Thomas, USA: 1-2, HR
Kun-Yu Chiang, TPE: 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI

A late-inning explosion from Taiwan gave them a massive win over the United States, keeping the door open for them to advance while all but eliminating the United States from the conversation. The game started like yesterday did for both squads, with the starters keeping the game scoreless before turning it over to the bullpen, though this time there was trouble brewing for both sides. Taiwan notched a couple of hits in the first inning off of USA starter Zac Grotz, with Grotz escaping thanks to a timely double play that ended the inning. Taiwan would continue to put the pressure on Grotz early with back-to-back singles opening the second inning, but Grotz got a critical strikeout of Tung-Hua Yueh for the first out, and the subsequent Taiwan ground outs weren’t able to force anyone home. Grotz’s leash finally ran out when he hit Chieh-Hsien Chen then allowed a base hit to Kungkuan Giljegiljaw with two outs, getting pulled for Sam Benschoter. Benschoter walked the first batter he saw, but a strikeout of Kun-Yu Chiang gave him an escape from damage.

On the flip side Po-Ching Chen got himself in trouble with his lack of strike-throwing, landing only 17 of his 37 pitches in the zone. He walked two American hitters in the first inning, but the United States couldn’t come up with any big hits. A strikeout of Colby Thomas ended the inning, but Chen wasn’t off the hook in the game. He issued a leadoff walk in the second inning, but Termarr Johnson popped up a bunt for the first out and Chen was able to retire the bottom two hitters in the lineup to skate around his own troubles and complete the second inning. His day would come to an early end as Kuo-Hao Chiang got the ball in relief in the third inning, and his day didn’t got much better than Chen’s. Chandler Simpson put the pressure on with a bunt, reaching base and then advancing as Yu-Cheng Chang sailed the throw high, bringing up the middle of the USA order that has been their life throughout the tournament. Chiang managed a pop out from Matt Shaw and strikeout of Carson Williams, but trouble grew again when he walked two batters with two outs. Facing Tim Elko and a bases loaded spot Chiang locked in and struck Elko out looking on three pitches.

After all of this work both teams would finally break through in the fourth inning, Benschoter being the recipient of the damage from Taiwan. Chia-Cheng Lin split the left center gap with a one-out double, and Taiwan would string together hits from there to take a lead. Cheng-Yu Chang put Taiwan on the board when he somehow got his bat on a back-foot slider from Benschoter, reaching down and golfing a pitch below the zone that narrowly clipped the right field line for an RBI double. Chen-Wei Chen then followed with a hit off of the same pitch, crushing a 1-2 slider that was left just a bit over the plate and banging it off of the right field wall for a triple. Benschoter would get a strikeout and a ground out to escape more damage, but Taiwan would never relinquish this lead.

USA’s lineup immediately threatened in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Termarr Johnson banging out a base hit and Willie MacIver ripping one down the left field line for a double that put two runners in scoring position with no outs in the inning. With the United States clearly threatening to tie or take the lead Taiwan went to Chih-Hsuan Wang to face consecutive lefties, a move that paid dividends. While Justin Crawford’s fly out to center field did score Johnson from third base for the run, Wang was able to retire both him and Simpson, Kun-Yu Chiang making a heady decision to cut down MacIver at third base on Simpson’s ground out, and with two outs the game felt like it no longer hung on a precipice for Taiwan. Simpson would steal second base to get into scoring positon, but after a pitching change Matt Shaw hit a hard grounder over to third base that Cheng-Yu Chang made a beautiful slide and throw on to retire the side.

Both teams traded home runs in the fifth inning, keeping the game close as it entered the latter half. Chieh-Kai Pan got Taiwan’s run back in the top of the fifth off of Antonio Menendez, one of the two hits Pan had in the game. Pan reached in all five of his plate appearances, thrice via walk. On the other side Colby Thomas, whose home run in the first game accounted for the only USA run, went deep again to get a jab back. Thomas showed off his impressive raw power by going down and getting a low curveball, depositing it in the left field bleachers for his second home run in as many games. With the game still hanging in the balance both teams traded uneventful innings, but it all came to a head in the top of the seventh.

Spencer Patton, one of the more experienced and seemingly reliable USA bullpen arms, took the ball in the seventh and it went off the rails in a major way. Patton loaded the bases with no outs thanks to a couple of singles and a walk, and unlike the earlier innings the United States wasn’t going to wiggle their way out of a catastrophic inning. Patton got ahead 1-2 on Kun-Yu Chiang, but left a fastball middle-middle that Chiang was able to lace into the right center field gap. Chiang steamed all the way around for a triple, clearing the bases and exploding the Taiwan lead to 6-2. Patton’s nightmare wasn’t done either as the next two batters also recorded singles, stretching the lead to 7-2 and chasing Patton from the game having not recorded a single out. Eric Adler was able to cut off the inning from spiraling much further, with a run scoring on an error but nothing else, yet it was far too late for the United States especially against a pitching staff like the one they faced. The United States never threatened with any major scoring opportunities down the stretch, and find themselves needing a ton of help to have any shot of advancing to the gold medal game.

VENEZUELA 6 — 9 JAPAN

box score | replay

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Shugo Maki, JPN: 2-4, HR, 4 RBI
Ryosuke Tatsumi, JPN: 3-4, 2B, RBI
Carlos Perez, VEN: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI

Venezuela has been playing an incredible tournament, and their breakout game put a scare into Samurai Japan as they held a late lead in the game. Venezuela sent out Ricardo Pinto, whose performance in the opening round was a huge contributing factor to them winning Group A, but Japan was ready to jump all over him in the first inning. Kaito Kozono’s one out double sent Pinto into a tailspin, with Ryosuke Tatsumi following with a double to give Japan the lead, and Shota Morishita notching an RBI single to double it to 2-0. Pinto couldn’t reset even after a coaching visit, walking the next two batters to load the bases with one out before being swiftly pulled before the inning got out of control. Yohander Mendez came in and got exactly what he wanted — a ground ball over to second base — but the slow chopper pulled Alexi Amarista away from the bag and though his throw got the force out at second Venezuela was unable to turn the double play and another run scored. Still, Mendez was critical in settling down the game for Venezuela, covering 2 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings despite contending with a Japanese lineup that kept forcing action on the bases. Mendez escaped a bases-loaded scenario in the third inning, and Venezuela’s fight seemed to be paying off.

While Japan was able to run away with a big first inning, Venezuela crawled back into the game thanks to a key home run in the second inning. Japan’s starter Hiroto Saiki has been one of many Japanese pitchers that have dominated this tournament, and while he was able to keep Venezuela in check across five innings, Venezuela chipped away at him in the second inning. Ramon Flores led off the inning by drawing a walk, and with one swing of the bat Angel Reyes took a chunk out of the deficit. Reyes smoked a fastball to center field, a two-run home run that moved the game to 3-2 and accounted for one of only two hits off of Saiki in the game. Venezuela was able to build momentum in the bullpen with Liarvis Brito — who retired five of six Japanese hitters he faced and saw the minimum across two innings of relief, setting up a shocking sixth inning.

Haruto Inoue came in from the bullpen from Japan, and he started out the inning with a strikeout. A bit of trouble brewed with a single from Herlis Rodriguez, and then suddenly Carlos Perez made the biggest swing for Venezuela to put the pressure on Japan. Perez reached and was able to get the barrel on a changeup that stayed in the zone, crushing one over the left field wall for a huge two-run home run to put Venezuela up 4-3. Venezuela would keep generating action in the sixth inning against Inoue following a walk to Jermaine Palacios, with a single from Angel Reyes and a single from Francisco Arcia following to score Palacios and make it 5-3. Arcia’s single could have extended the inning further, but when attempted to advance to second on the throw home he was easily nabbed between first and second base. Reyes attempted to score in the ensuing rundown, but the throw home cut him down for the final out. Still, Venezuela had to feel good about how their pitching had performed since the first inning.

Breto kept his good work going by getting a ground out in the bottom of the sixth inning, but in a flash Shogo Sakakura flipped momentum with a solo home run off of a 2-0 fastball from Breto. That was the end of Breto’s day, Ricardo Rodriguez taking the bump afterwards, and Rodriguez did his job and retired the lone batter he faced. This brought in Jose Alvarez, who after his terrific work in the opening round (2 ¹⁄₃ IP, 0 R, 3 K) seemed poised to carry the lead into the late innings of this game. Alvarez couldn’t keep it together though, allowing a walk and a hit to put runners on, and sensing trouble Pedro Garcia was brought in to keep the inning from descending into chaos. It was no use. Garcia was even worse, walking the first two batters he faced to force home a run and tie the game. Garcia fell behind to Shugo Maki, and then made a huge mistake. Garcia left a slider up and over the plate and Maki didn’t miss it one bit. Maki rocketed a fly ball out to left field, easily clearing the wall for a two-out, go-ahead grand slam. Japan has made a habit this tournament, and for years now, of taking advantage of every mistake the other team makes, and this one was their opportunity to explode into the lead.

Both sides were able to calm things down after the chaotic sixth inning, getting scoreless relief work to take it into the ninth with Japan still holding the four run lead. Venezuela put up their best effort in the ninth inning with Arcia leading the inning off with a base hit, though a double play from nine hole hitter Diego Castillo erased that quickly. Alexi Amarista smacked a single into right field, advanced on a passed ball, and then scored on a base hit, but the battle was a bit too late as Venezuela couldn’t string enough hits together. Taisei Ota was able to get a strikeout to close out the game and give Japan a 7-0 start to the Premier12.

Schedule for November 23rd

United States (0-2) vs Venezuela (1-1) — 12:00 PM Local/10:00 PM EST Nov 21

Venue: Tokyo Dome – Tokyo, Japan

How to Watch: DAZN

Chinese Taipei (1-1) vs Japan (2-0) — 7:00 PM Local/9:00 PM EST

Venue: Tokyo Dome – Tokyo, Japan

How to Watch: DAZN

ADVANCEMENT SCENARIOS

• Japan Win + Venezuela Win – Japan and Venezuela advance to gold medal game
• Japan Win + United States Win – Japan advance, best Team Quality Balance between VEN, TPE, USA advance
• Chinese Taipei Win + Venezuela Win – USA eliminated, Top two between JPN, TPE, VEN advance based on Team Quality Balance
• Chinese Taipei Win + United States Win – Chinese Taipei and Japan advance