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Baseball: Lotte beats Taiwan in WBC warm-up game+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 28_(Kyodo) _ Tasuku Hashimoto, Valentino Pascucci and Naotaka Takehara homered in the second inning as the Lotte Marines beat Taiwan 6-3 in an exhibition game Tuesday. Taiwan starter Yang Chien-fu gave up four runs in the first two innings to allow Lotte to take control of the game at Tokyo Dome, which was arranged as part of Taiwan's warm-up for the first round of the World Baseball Classic beginning Friday. Left-hander Kosuke Kato and four relievers combined to pitch eight shutout innings for the Japan Series champions before Taiwan scored three runs off southpaw Keita Asama in the bottom of the ninth. Taiwan cleanup hitter Lin Wei-chu, who plays for the Hanshin Tigers, went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China play first-round Pool A games in the 16-team World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome on Friday through Sunday, and the top two teams will advance to the second round to be played in the United States on March 12-16. San Diego will host the semifinals on March 18 and the final two days later. The inaugural World Cup-style international tournament features major league players representing their countries for the first time. |