Preview: Chinese Taipei takes on Japan in Meeting for first place in Group B of WBSC Premier12

Chinese Taipei and Japan square off in a matchup between the No. 2 and the No. 1 in the KONAMI/WBSC Men’s Baseball World Rankings at 6pm local time at the Taipei Dome in Taipei, Taiwan to resume the WBSC Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS in Group B of the opening round. The game at the Taipei Dome has been sold out.

Samurai Japan had a strong start into the tournament. On Wednesday they prevailed 9-3 over Australia in the opening match in Nagoya, Japan, traveled to Taipei, Taiwan on Thursday and then won their clash against Korea 6-3 on Friday. Japan is hitting .348/.418/.449 through the first two games. Shota Morishita is 5-for-7 with a home run, two doubles, six runs scored and four RBI in the process. Pitching wise they have a team ERA of 3.00 with an impressive 33 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched.

Chinese Taipei also started off the WBSC Premier12 with a pair of wins. On Wednesday they downed Korea 6-3 and then on Thursday edged out the Dominican Republic 2-1 in a nail-biter. They had Friday off. Their offense hasn’t got going so far except for a few spurts to plate the decisive runs. They are hitting .233/.309/.400 through two games. Chieh-Hsien Chen is leading the way with five hits in seven at-bats including a home run. Chinese Taipei’s team ERA sits at 2.00. They have struck out 18 batters in 18 innings, while walking only three so far.

Samurai
Japan has tabbed Hiroto Saiki as starting pitcher for their matchup againstChinese Taipei. The 26-year-old right-hander from the Hanshin Tigers was namedstarting pitcher in NPB’s All-Star Game 1 this summer. He had a strong seasonin 2024, his sixth in NPB. He went 13-3 with an ERA of 1.83 in 25 games. Hestruck out 137 pitchers and walked 37 in 167.2 innings pitched.

Chinese Taipeimeanwhile is answering with fellow 26-year-old Po-Ching Chen. The left-handedhurler of the TSG Hawks in the CPBL in Taiwan went 6-10 with an ERA of 3.53 in19 games this year. He collected 47 strikeouts and walked 50 batters in 102innings on the mound. He also represented Chinese Taipei in last year’s AsianBaseball Championship.

Japan and
Chinese Taipei met twice during the Asian Baseball Championship 2023 – the lasttime both senior national teams faced each other - with Japan winning 1-0 inthe Super Round and 1-0 in the final. In the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup thisyear Chinese Taipei prevailed 6-5. In the WBSC Premier12 2019 Japan won anopening round matchup against Chinese Taipei with a score of 8-1.