It’s perhaps an obvious baseball truism but when you pitch well and hit home runs, you’re going to win a lot of baseball games. Team Australia did precisely that Wednesday night at the World Baseball Classic, tossing a shutout and hitting a couple of huge round-trippers en route to a tournament-opening win over Chinese Taipei at the Tokyo Dome.
The last WBC ended with one big-leaguer striking out another, when Shohei Ohtani mowed down his then-teammate Mike Trout to clinch the championship for Japan.
The 2026 iteration of the tournament started out similarly, albeit without the level of star power and name recognition.
Former Orioles pitcher Alex Wells (born in Newcastle, New South Wales), faced off with Stuart Fairchild of Chinese Taipei (via his mother’s side of the family) to open the tournament. And as Shohei did to Trout, Wells whiffed the Reds outfielder. The 2026 WBC was officially off and running. Despite a two-out walk, Chinese Taipei was not, as Wells escaped with no damage.
Australian Curtis Mead of the Chicago White Sox earned the honor of notching the first base hit of the tournament after the home-plate umpire missed a called third strike on him. On the next pitch, Mead rapped a single into right field. It was the second seemingly missed strike of the game. Ultimately, it was “no harm, no foul.” Both Chinese Taipei and Australia managed a baserunner in the opening stanza but neither club dented the run column. The lack of ABS was glaring early, however, with four missed calls in the first two frames.
Pitching dominated early, with Wells and Chinese Taipei starter Jo-Hsi Hsu taking turns mowing down opposing hitters. Cleveland Guardians prospect Travis Bazzana managed a two-out single for Australia in the third, but like Mead’s hit earlier, it went for naught.
As the game went to the fourth frame, we got our first pitching change, with Wells approaching his pitch limit. He saved his best for last, whiffing the final five Chinese Taipei hitters he faced.
Jack O’Loughlin, who formerly toiled for Oakland and Colorado, replaced him. And with two out in the top of the fourth, 2023 WBC star Yu Chang singled. There would be no no-hitter for Australia this night. But as with seemingly every other baserunner, he advanced no further.
Jo-Hsi Hsu, meanwhile, just kept on dealing for Chinese Taipei. With his pitch count in excellent shape, he was able to come back out for the fourth and keep Australia out of the run column. When the game went to the fifth, Chinese Taipei skipper Hao-Jiu Tseng finally went to the ‘pen. In came Po-Yu Chen, who inauspiciously began by plunking the first man he faced.
And Robbie Perkins made him pay. The former Rockies farmhand went oppo taco on a 1-1 offering for the WBC’s first long ball. The home run broke the scoreless tie, giving the Aussies a 2-0 lead.
Chinese Taipei had a golden opportunity in the top of the sixth to get on the board, if not take the lead. A two-out base hit, followed by a HBP, put two on for cleanup hitter Yu Chang. O’Loughlin, though he was deep into his pitch count, managed to get a groundball to third to escape the jam. With Chinese Taipei running out of outs, that looked like perhaps their best chance, and it was especially painful to not muster anything from that since the HBP saw team captain Chieh-Hsien Chen leave the game.
With Australia clinging to a 2-0 lead and southpaws proving effective on the mound, the Aussies turned to a third lefty in the seventh. Jon Kennedy entered and, as did his predecessors in this one, held Chinese Taipei off the scoreboard.
Bazzana padded the Australian lead in the bottom of the seventh, unloading to right field to make it 3-0. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft didn’t need to play “Guards Ball” like some of his future Cleveland teammates, and he was justifiably pretty pumped as he headed to first.
Kennedy continued to hold up his end of the bargain. A two-out walk in the eighth notwithstanding, the third portside slinger of the game for Australia calmly got his club through, now needing only three more outs to win the WBC opener.
The top of the ninth began with drama. Cheng-Hui Sung seemingly beat out a groundball to shortstop. But Australia successfully challenged the call on the field, wiping the leadoff runner off the board. But the challenge giveth, and the challenge taketh away. Yu Chang rolled a ground ball to third. An errant throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, though he apparently tagged Yu Chang as he ran past. Certain he hadn’t been tagged, the signaled to the dugout to challenge. Chinese Taipei did … and they won. First-base umpire Manny Gonzalez has had better days.
From there, a pinch-hit single by Kungkuan Giljegiljaw put two runners on and brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Lyle Lin, who drove a ball to the deepest part of the field. Anywhere else, and perhaps this game was tied. Instead, it landed in the glove of center fielder Aaron Whitefield to put runners on the corners and two out. A grounder back to Kennedy brought this one to an end and Australia won the inaugural game of the 2026 WBC, 3-0.
It’s a key first win for Australia, as while Japan appears to be the easy favorite in Pool C, the second spot is up for grabs, and the Aussies now already have a leg up on Chinese Taipei. If they beat South Korea as well, then it would be a shock if they didn’t advance. First, they’ll face a real dark horse in Czechia on Thursday at 10pm ET. That will actually be Czechia’s second game in less than 24 hours, as they face South Korea in the next contest at 5am ET. As for Chinese Taipei, they have a tall task ahead in facing Shohei Ohtani and Japan on Friday at 5am ET.
Tune in tomorrow (or later today!) for more PSA coverage of the WBC.
Today at the WBC
Czech Republic vs. South Korea (Pool C)
Time: 5:00 a.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: Tokyo Dome, Japan
Australia vs. Czech Republic (Pool C)
Time: 10:00 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Venue: Tokyo Dome, Japan
