Chinese Taipei rolls past Czechia for 1st win at '26 Classic

Entering its game against Czechia on Saturday at Tokyo Dome, Chinese Taipei was scoreless in this year’s World Baseball Classic.

That changed in a big way.

Chinese Taipei erupted at the plate and set a WBC single-game record by stealing eight bases in a 14-0 victory in seven innings to pick up its first win of the tournament and drop Czechia to 0-3 in Pool C.

With two on and one out in the first, Chinese Taipei kept the pressure on by executing a successful double steal. Czechia’s catcher, Martin Cervenka, made an errant throw that went down the third-base line, enabling Cheng to score and Fairchild to reach third. The next batter, Yu Chang, singled in a second run.

The big blow for Chinese Taipei came in the second, when Fairchild launched a grand slam to break the game open. Chang continued his big game with a two-run single in the fourth to extend the lead, then added another RBI single in the sixth.

Chinese Taipei got strong performances from Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang (2 2/3 innings), Yu-Min Lin (2 1/3), Kai-Wei Lin (1) and Jyun-Yue Tseng (1) who combined for seven scoreless frames while yielding four hits, walking one and striking out 10.

Chinese Taipei put the finishing touches on its victory with a five-run sixth inning that extended the lead to 14-0, triggering the tournament run rule after the bottom of the seventh.