TOKYO -- It will go down as one of the most memorable World Baseball Classic games in Tokyo Dome’s storied history. Chinese Taipei – which had never defeated Korea in the tournament before – needed a victory to keep its slim hopes of advancing alive. With a win, Korea would set up a win-and-advance contest on Monday vs. Australia if the Aussies lost to Japan in the nightcap.
More than 40,000 fans – mostly from Taiwan – filled Tokyo Dome at noon on Sunday as cheerleaders danced atop the dugouts and bands blasted music. Fans were then treated to a dinger-filled, heavyweight spectacle.
But after the teams exchanged home run after home run, it was a sacrifice bunt that went all of two feet that decided things and gave Chinese Taipei a stirring 5-4 victory over Korea in 10 innings.
2026 World Baseball Classic
• How to watch games live
• Scores and schedule
• Standings and tiebreakers
• Tickets and venues
• Rosters
• Players by MLB team
• Complete coverage
Kun-Yu Chiang’s bunt down the first-base line plated Chieh-Hsien Chen from third in the top of the 10th, and Chinese Taipei stifled Korea in the bottom half – but not before an out at the plate that prevented the tying run. First baseman Nien-Ting Wu fielded a grounder and threw home to Shao-Hung Chiang to nail Ju Won Kim trying to tie the game. The play was challenged but the original out call was upheld.
Hyun Jin Ryu was making his first appearance for the national team since winning the country an Olympic gold medal in 2008 and helping Korea get to the World Baseball Classic finals in 2009. The 38-year-old veteran was solid in three innings of work save for one pitch that Yu Chang smashed for a solo home run in the first inning.
Korea tied the game on a double-play ground ball hit by the Astros’ Shay Whitcomb in the fifth before the game went bonkers.
Red Sox prospect Tsung-Che Cheng smashed a solo shot to left-center in the sixth to give Chinese Taipei the lead. Do-Yeong Kim, who was the youngest player to ever go 30/30 in the KBO in 2024, then smashed a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning – hurling his bat into the air as he left the box – to knot the game back up at 3.
Stuart Fairchild, whose grand slam on Saturday sank the Czechs, responded in the top of the eighth with a two-run home run to give Chinese Taipei the lead. Kim, up again in the bottom half, punched back. He laced a double to the right-center-field gap, driving in Hyeseong Kim to tie the game once again.
Knotted at 4, the game headed to extra innings. These two teams had played in extra innings in 2017, with Korea winning that one, 11-8, on an Euiji Yang sacrifice fly and a Taekyun Kim two-run home run.