World Baseball Classic: Chang carries Chinese Taipei to an ambush win

The World Baseball Classic now has a legitimate darkhorse threat in Chinese Taipei.

It also has a legit darkhorse hero candidate in Yu Chang.

With Chang’s immense help, the hosts of Taichung-based Group A rudely pulled the rug out from under Netherlands’ plans to dominate the group Saturday, delivering a 9-5 upset. The surprisingly one-sided outcome oddly advantages both teams, who are now tied at 2-1, each with one game remaining against lesser teams.

If both win those games, both advance.

Netherlands, with decidedly the more experienced lineup, entered Saturday’s game looking to lock up its own advancement. A quick first-inning run, fueled by hits off the bats of Jurickson Profar and Didi Gregorius, enhanced that hope.

But Taipei sprung an ambush in the form of a five-run second inning that swapped momentum for the entire evening. Taipei loaded the bases on a hit, a walk and a hit batter, then free agent Li Lin lined a single up the middle scoring the tying run.

One out later, infielder Chang — a Red Sox free agent signee who saw brief service with four major league teams last season — poled a grand slam into the recesses of deep center field, shooting Taipei to a stunning 5-1 lead.

It was the second big-time moment in two nights for Chang. His sixth inning home run Friday had erased a 7-5 Italy lead and propelled Taipei to an eventual 11-7 victory. Chang is batting .500 for the tournament.

The hosts added two more runs in the third and by the fourth had built an 8-2 margin, which a succession of pitchers made stand up.

The more experienced Netherlands offense did little. Xander Bogaerts was hitless, as were Profar and Gregorius after their first-inning singles. Another MLB veteran, Jonathan Schoop, also failed to produce. The combined efforts of those four current major leaguers amounted to the pair of first inning singles in 13 official at-bats.

World Baseball Classic: Japan 10, Czech Republic 2

The hosts improved their record to 3-0 and their run differential to an imposing 31-5 with another one-sided victory in Tokyo.

The Czechs actually held a brief lead in this game, scoring in the top of the first when Takumo Nakano’s throwing error allowed Marek Chlup, who had doubled, to touch home plate.

It marked only the second time in the tournament that Japan had trailed, and the hosts did not take the insult lightly. In the third, three hits and a walk produced three runs. One inning later, two more walks and three hits (one of them a Shohei Ohtani double) generated four more runs and removed any doubt as to the eventual outcome.

It was Ohtani’s only hit and only RBI of the day, although any heroics on his part would have been superfluous. The Japanese offense produced 11 hits on the evening, that total supplemented by nine bases on balls from six Czech pitchers.

Outfielder Masataka Yoshida, the Boston Red Sox winter free agent signee, produced three of those 11 hits, in the process driving in three runs and scoring once. Yoshida is hitting a lofty .625 to date in the tournament.

Roki Sasaki, the young star who gained renown last season by pitching 17 consecutive perfect innings, started and lasted into the fourth. He allowed two hits and that one unearned run, striking out eight of the 10 batters he retired.

World Baseball Classic: Australia 12, China 2

The surprising Australians gave themselves the inside track to advance out of Group B play with a runaway victory over the winless mainland China team in Tokyo.

Rixon Wingrove, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound first baseman who played last season in the Phillies organization, led the Australian offense. His first-inning bases-loaded double gave the Aussies a quick 3-0 boost that they never relinquished, and his infield hit during a five-run Australia fourth inning pushed another run across.

Robbie Glendinning, a Royals farmhand who had hit a pivotal three-run home run two nights ago to defeat Korea, contented himself with a two-run homer against China. It was Australia’s only four-bagger in a 12-hit attack amply supplemented by nine walks issued by China pitchers.

Outfielder Aaron Whitefield doubled, walked twice, scored three times, drove in two and stole a base … just because he could. Whitefield is a free agent with brief Major League experience for the Twins and Angels.

The winless Chinese, who dropped to 0-3 and were eliminated from advancement with the outcome, never got closer than three runs following Wingrove’s three-run first inning hit. First baseman Jie Cao, a newcomer to professional baseball competition, was the only China player to get two hits.

World Baseball Classic: Panama 2, Italy 0

Four pitchers came up big against upstart Italy in a game played in Taichung that Panama absolutely, positively had to have.

They limited the Italians to just five base hits, enabling Jose Ramos’ second-inning home run to stand up as the winning margin. An outfielder in the Dodgers system, Ramos also scored Panama’s insurance run in the seventh when Allen Cordoba singled him home.

Even so, it took a display of ninth inning defense to salt the victory away. Dominic Fletcher started the last of that ninth by drawing a base on balls off Panamanian closer Javy Guerra, and Brett Sullivan followed by slipping a base hit off the glove of shortstop Ruben Tejada into center field. That sent Fletcher to third with nobody out.

Then Guerra, who will pitch this season for the Milwaukee Brewers, struck out John Valente and coerced a comebacker off the bat of Nicky Lopez that he turned into a game-ending double play. Lopez was initially called safe at first, but that call was overturned on appeal.

Panama concludes pool play at 2-2 and now waits to see whether the intricate WBC tie-breaking system will make that good enough to advance out of Group play. Their fate will be decided by the outcomes of games Saturday between Netherlands and Italy and between Chinese Taipei and Cuba.

Panama needs a loss by either Chinese Taipei or Netherlands to retain hope. Pending the outcomes of those two games, all five of the Group A teams remain technically eligible to land one of the two tickets to the next round.