The U.S. beat Chinese Taipei 4-2 today as Taiwan’s disastrous Olympic campaign continued. Taiwan fell to 1-5 in Beijing, with increasingly angry and fed-up Taiwanese fans clamoring for answers.
U.S. Starter Brandon Knight picked up the win on 6 1/3 strong innings, and power /speed combo lefty outfielder Dexter Fowler drove in the games go-ahead run on a double down the line off of reliever Lee Chen-Chang.
For Taiwan, the game marked another Quioxtic episode in an Olympic series marked by a seemingly endless list of arbitrary decisions, missed chances, and managerial blunders. Taiwan had a chance to win the China, Japan, and U.S. games, but failed to largely due to strategic mishaps.
For a concise breakdown of what is going wrong with Chinese Taipei’s ship, the Taipei Times’ Alan Ellis has penned an editorial in last Sunday’s edition detailing Hong’s perplexing managing decisions–and structural reforms needed in Taiwan’s national program.
4 responses so far ↓
1 bigdaub // Aug 20, 2008 at 1:45 am
another thing that pisses me off about hong is his refusal to advance runners late in the game. it happened in the games against china and korea, where late in the game with potential tying or winning run on base, he didn’t order the batter to sacrifice to advance the runner. the writer for taipei time is spot on about hong’s cluelessness on bullpen management.
i’ve been watching taiwan baseball for a long time now and i don’t think it’s just hong. other managers seems to follow the same pattern. maybe it’s time for some us influence. bring in some coaches and managers from the states and teach these old farts that it’s time to move on evolve their game management with everyone else.
2 Simon Currie // Aug 20, 2008 at 2:46 am
Must be the feng shui. Kinda working on the Japanese, but the Koreans are fending it off!
3 hansioux // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:13 am
I think Taiwan had a shot at winning against Korea too, if the retardo manager didn’t insist on starting a guy who just pitched 2 days ago.
4 Zack // Aug 20, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I don’t think starting the pitcher who pitched 2 days ago was Hong’s biggest mistake.
But starting a pitcher who sucked 2 days ago while also having been consistently shit over the course of the entire season should have been obvious red flags to the manager. To ignore that while there are better alternatives available, now that’s a dumbass move.
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