Taipei, March 12 (CNA) A team of All-Stars from Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) beat the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 Friday in the opening game of a three-game exhibition series that marks the Dodgers' first visit to Taiwan in 17 years.
Taiwanese hitters belted 12 hits against Dodgers pitchers while Taiwan's hurlers gave up only three hits and shut out slugger Manny Ramirez in three at-bats in the game played in Taipei.
The visiting split squad will have to win the two remaining games if they want to keep the promise of two MLB officials.
Paul Archey, MLB senior vice president of international operations, and Major League Baseball Players Association chief operating officer Gene Orza, said at a news conference Thursday that the full-squad Dodgers lost two of three on their last visit in 1993, and they "guaranteed" that wouldn't happen again.
The CPBL All-Stars broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth. Wang Sheng-wei belted a double and Pan Wu-hsiung added a single off the Dodgers' Korean reliever Choi Hyang-nam to give Taiwan a 2-0 lead. It added another three runs an inning later.
The Dodgers blew a scoring opportunity in the top of the sixth when their Taiwanese infielder Hu Chin-lung popped out with two out and the bases loaded, but they avoided a shutout with two runs in the top of the eighth.
Left-hander Lin Ying-chieh started the game against the Dodgers' Eric Stults.
Game 2 will start at 2: 07 p.m. Saturday in Tienmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei. Josh Towers is scheduled to start for the Dodgers, and Taiwan is expected to send Yang Chien-fu to the mound.