"How could this be?" Fallen for the bizarre pitching form again... Korean baseball suffers a 1-6 rout to Taiwan, sinks to the bottom [U-23 World Cup]

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

It is that pitcher again. The Korean national baseball team was once again tripped up by Taiwan's obscure pitcher who had left them struggling during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Korea, led by manager Lee Yeon-soo, lost 1-6 to Taiwan in its first Super Round match at the 6th U-23 Baseball World Cup, held on the 13th (Korean time) at the Estadio Nacional Soberania in Managua, Nicaragua.

After falling to Venezuela and Japan in the group stage, the team entered the Super Round with two losses and dropped to last place among the six nations that advanced with three losses.

Venezuela leads with three wins, while Australia and Japan are tied for second with two wins and one loss each. Taiwan and Puerto Rico are also tied for fourth with one win and two losses each. With its chances of advancing to the final gone, Korea will face Australia on the 14th and Puerto Rico on the 15th.

The situation is grim; even if it wins both remaining games, the possibility of advancing to the bronze medal match has become quite low.

They fell again to Taiwan pitcher Lin Yi-wei (20, Cooperative Bank). Lin was the pitcher who shocked Korea at the Asian Games. Despite his slender build, he completely disrupted the timing of Korean batters with a unique kicking motion. Although he gave up one run due to defensive errors, he had zero earned runs through five innings. He shut down the Korean lineup with just 1 hit allowed in 73 pitches.

This time, the start was good. In the top of the first inning, leadoff batter Kim Gun hit a single and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt, then scored on an error by the opposing team.

However, that was the last run. Korea surrendered the momentum in vain with a massive run concession in the bottom of the second inning. In the bottom of the second, after one out, Taiwan tied the game 1-1 on a one-run RBI single by left fielder Huang Chun-lin following a hit by Chai Sheng-zhe and a wild pitch. Then, after a hit by Zheng Jun-wei, combined with a defensive error by Korea, they were overtaken.

As the score gap widened to 1-3, Korea made a pitching change, but the deficit grew further to 1-5 due to runs scored on hits-by-pitch and walks, including bases-loaded walks.

After that, they bowed their heads in defeat as they were thoroughly outplayed by Lin Yi-wei. He delivered a dazzling dominant performance over six innings. In six innings, Lin Yi-wei threw 92 pitches, allowing only 2 hits, striking out 6 batters, and giving up 1 unearned run.

Korea failed to record a hit in 10 consecutive at-bats from after Lee Won-jun's single with two outs in the top of the second inning until leadoff batter Kim Gun reached on a hit-by-pitch in the sixth inning.

Taiwan added one run in the bottom of the sixth to nail down the victory, and right-handed pitcher Wang Wei-ji, who took the mound in the top of the seventh, cleanly retired the side to close out the game.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original