(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Netherlands closes exhibition-series in Taiwan with loss
Nederlands
 DOULIU CITY, Yunlin County (Taiwan) -
On Monday-afternoon (March 6), the Netherlands Team closed its series of six exhibition games as part of its preparations for the upcoming fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic with a 4-2 loss.
The team won one of the six games played.
The Orange Team opens the event on Wednesday (March 8) against Cuba.
That game starts at 5 AM Dutch time.
The Netherlands Team started its preparations for the global event on February 17 when most players of the WBC-roster got together in Scottsdale in Arizona (USA).
There, the team played four exhibition games against three teams from the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), the highest professional league in South Korea.
Also, two intrasquad-games were played, the last of them on February 28, the day before the team left for Taiwan.
In Taiwan, the team played two more exhibition games.
On Sunday, the Netherlands lost 2-1 against Fubon Guardians, which is one of the teams from the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the professional league in Taiwan.
Today, the Orange Team closed against TSG Hawks, which officially joined the CPBL last year.
However, as is the rule, in its first year, the team has to play in the Minor League this season.
TSG Hawks then will join the CPBL next year.
In January, wellknown Yi-Zhong Hong was named the first Manager of TSG Hawks.
With 991 victories, Hong is the winningest Manager in the CPBL-history.
In 2004-2010, he led La New Bears, which became Lamigo Monkeys thereafter.
Hong continued as Manager through 2019.
In these sixteen seasons, he led the team to seven titles.
In 2020-2021, Hong was the Manager of Fubon Guardians.
In 2006, he was a member of the coaching-staff of Chinese Taipei during the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
The following year, Hong became the Manager and led to he team to qualification for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China), where he also led the team.
In the two exhibition games played in Taiwan, 29 of the 30 players on the Orange-roster came into action.
The lone player who didn't play was pitcher Tom de Blok, as he was named the starting pitcher for the Netherlands in the opening-game of the World Baseball Classic against Cuba coming Wednesday.
In Arizona, the righthander threw in both intersquad games played there.
In Douliu Baseball Stadium, the Netherlands took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, but failed to hold onto it.
Opponent TSG Hawks scored three runs in the fifth at bat and went on to win 4-2.
Lars Huijer was the starting pitcher for the Netherlands and had a strong outing, striking out five batters and giving up only one basehit in the four innings he threw.
For Huijer, this was his third exhibition start.
The righthander retired the first six batters he faced.
In the bottom of the third inning, Huijer gave up a lead-off infield-hit to Chen-Tso Tseng, but he was eliminated moments later in a double play.
Huijer closed the at bat with a strikeout, then retired the side again in the fourth, striking out two more batters.
The Netherlands got three baserunners in the first two innings off of starter Po-Ching Chen.
The lefthander walked lead-off hitter Jurickson Profar in the top of the first inning, but he stranded on second base.
In the second at bat, Chen walked Wladimir Balentien and Richie Palacios, the first two batters.
Chen then struckout Jonathan Schoop and got a double play-grounder from Chadwick Tromp, which ended this scoring opportunity.
...Wladimir Balentien...
...2-run homerun...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The Netherlands was then retired in order in the third, but opened the score in the fourth.
With one out, Didi Gregorius singled and powerhitter Wladimir Balentien followed with a homerun over the fence in leftfield.
With two outs, Jonathan Schoop walked and moved to second base on a wild pitch, but stranded there.
In the remainder of the game, the Orange-offense was silenced by four relievers.
The team added only one more basehit, a 2-out single by Roger Bernadina in the fifth off of new pitcher Jun-Kai Zhang, who was wearing uniform number 204.
This pitcher was a non-roster player, is one of the Minor League-players of the team and went on to become the winning pitcher.
Bernadina advanced on a wild pitch to become the last Dutch runner in scoring position.
Only two more Dutch batters reached base from the sixth inning.
In the sixth, Richie Palacios walked with two outs and in the ninth, Sharlon Schoop also walked with two outs.
By the way, the number 204 worn by Zhang is not the lone 'unusual' uniform number in the team of TSG Hawks.
Five players on the active roster will play with number 0 (pitcher), 111 (pitcher), 303 (catcher), 003 (infielder) and 134 (outfielder).
Other teams in the CPBL also have some high numbers, as do players in the professional leagues in Japan and South Korea.
The numbers 0 and 00 are the most used.
These numbers are also regularly in use in the American Major League.
Also, in the Netherlands Team, pitcher Derek West is playing with 00 on his back.
And this is all normal and accepted.
Last season, there was a discussion in the Dutch big league when a player of Hoofddorp Pioniers had the number 0 on his uniform.
That was not allowed, as according to the Dutch rules, players can only use numbers from 1 through 99.
Which is somewhat weird, as 0 and 00, as well as high numbers are regularly used in professional baseball and international tournaments.
...Starting line-up TSG Hawks...
...# 003 is 1B Yu-Hsuan Yen... |
With a 2-0 lead, Juan Carlos Sulbaran took over the Orange-pitching in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The righthander gave up three runs, only one of them earned.
With one out, Jhao-Yuan Jhang reached when short stop Xander Bogaerts made an error.
A walk led to another runner and a single by Chen-Tso Tseng loaded the bases.
Moments later, Hawks came alongside when the first two runners scored on a following single by Wei-Han Hong.
With runners at the corners, Hawks took a 3-2 lead via a passed ball.
In the next two innings, Orange-relievers Ryan Huntington (sixth) and Eric Mendez Matos (seventh) retired the side.
The Taiwanese opponent added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth off of new pitcher Antwone Kelly.
With one out, he gave up a triple to Wei-Han Hong.
Hereafter, Jia-Hong Lin walked, but when ball-four ended up in a wild pitch, Hong scored to increase the lead to 4-2.
Although TSG Hawks had the lead, the ninth inning was completed.
In the bottom of the ninth, Arij Fransen took the mound for the Netherlands.
With two outs, he gave up a triple to pinch-hitter Yi-Shen Sun, but a flyout then ended the game.
For the Netherlands, the following players came into action:
Jurickson Profar (LF, 0-for-3), Roger Bernadina (CF, 1-for-3), Josh Palacios (CF, 0-for-1), Xander Bogaerts (SS, 0-for-3), Ray-Patrick Didder (SS, 0-for-1), Didi Gregorius (1B, 1-for-3), Sicnarf Loopstok (1B, 0-for-1), Wladimir Balentien (DH, 1-for-3), Richie Palacios (RF, 0-for-1), Zander Wiel (RF, 0-for-1), Jonathan Schoop (2B, 0-for-2), Sharlon Schoop (2B, 0-for-0), Chadwick Tromp (C, 0-for-3), Dashenko Ricardo (C, 0-for-1), Andrelton Simmons (3B, 0-for-2), Juremi Profar (3B, 0-for-1) and pitchers Lars Huijer, Juan Carlos Sulbaran, Ryan Huntington, Eric Mendez Matos, Antwone Kelly and Arij Fransen.
(March 6)
Related Articles:
 Netherlands suffers small loss in exhibition in Taiwan; Fransen replaces Farley. (March 5)
Netherlands Team loses last exhibition-game in Arizona. (February 27)
Netherlands Team wins first exhibition-game via homerun-comeback. (February 25)
Netherlands Team suffers big loss in second exhibition-game in Arizona. (February 21)
Netherlands Team opens exhibition-series in Arizona with loss. (February 19)
Roster Netherlands Team announced for World Baseball Classic. (February 10)
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Sixth (and last) exhibition game as part of preparations for World Baseball Classic.