{"id":515639,"date":"2026-03-05T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515639\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:58:08","slug":"mlb-no-1-pick-travis-bazzana-hits-home-run-as-australia-upsets-world-no-2-chinese-taipei-at-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515639\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB No.1 pick Travis Bazzana hits home run as Australia upsets world No.2 Chinese Taipei at World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MLB No.1 pick Travis Bazzana homered and three pitchers combined for a complete game shutout as Australia stunned world No.2 Chinese Taipei 3-0 at the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>The Aussies are in the group of death at baseball\u2019s version of the World Cup, placed alongside Asia\u2019s three strongest teams &#8211; reigning champions and group hosts Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei &#8211; plus Czechia with only two teams advancing to the knockouts.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the World Baseball Classic with ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au?pg=default&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkafl-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-afl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" title=\"kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But Bazzana\u2019s game-sealing home run on Thursday afternoon at the Tokyo Dome ensured the 11th-ranked Aussies are a chance of escaping the group.<\/p>\n<p>It followed Robbie Perkins\u2019 two-run shot in the fifth inning which held up thanks to three scoreless innings apiece from pitchers Alex Wells, Jack O\u2019Loughlin and Jon Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>Wells was particularly impressive with six strikeouts while O\u2019Loughlin, the nation\u2019s 38th and most recent MLB player, allowed just two hits through the middle innings.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese Taipei threatened with a pair of baserunners in the ninth but Kennedy managed to shut the door.<\/p>\n<p>Second baseman Bazzana <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/baseball\/mlb-2025-inside-no1-pick-travis-bazzanas-meeting-with-cleveland-guardians-update-higha\/news-story\/23a764895b04ebde9aa130122c9d579b\" title=\"www.foxsports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">was the No.1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Guardians<\/a> with hopes of being promoted from the minor leagues this season.<\/p>\n<p>He is ranked as the No.20 prospect in all of baseball by MLB.com.<\/p>\n<p>A pair of oblique strains limited his 2025 season and impacted his hitting when healthy &#8211; an issue given contact and power were his strongest tools coming out of college.<\/p>\n<p>Across AA, AAA and rookie-level ball he put up .245\/.389\/.424 with nine home runs in 374 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>A healthier year should allow him to prove he can become a mainstay at major league level.<\/p>\n<p>The Aussies will look to move to 2-0 when they face Czechia on Friday afternoon followed by likely decisive games against Japan (Sunday night) and South Korea (Monday night).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB No.1 pick Travis Bazzana homered and three pitchers combined for a complete game shutout as Australia stunned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-515639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}