Cleveland Indians infielder Yu Chang was the target of vile and racist hatred after making a game-ending error on Monday ... and now he's calling out the scumbags behind the hateful comments.

Chang -- who is Taiwanese -- was playing 1st base for Cleveland in their tilt against the Chicago White Sox when he made a throwing error in the bottom of the 9th (with 1 out) that ultimately cost Cleveland the game.

Of course, Chang probably felt terrible for the error -- but what made things worse is the tidal wave of hate that came onto his social media pages.

Chang decided he wasn't going to let the racists idiots behind the messages get away with such horrible comments -- and put them on blast Tuesday morning.

The comments are despicable -- using disgusting anti-Asian slurs to attack Chang. One person even brought up SARS and the coronavirus. Really terrible stuff.

25-year-old Chang says he's open to legitimate baseball criticism -- but he won't stand for racism or other offensive comments.

"Exercise your freedom of speech in a right way, I accept all comments, positive or negative but DEFINITELY NOT RACIST ONES."

"Thank you all and love you all. #StopAsianHate."

The comments come at a time of unrest for the Asian community -- Stop AAPI Hate recently released a report claiming there have been more than 3,800 anti-Asian incidents in the past year.

Sports stars have been using their platform more than ever to combat anti-Asian hate -- NBA player Jeremy Lin recently revealed he was called the "coronavirus" during a recent G-League game ... and vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent others from going through similar hurtful experiences.

Chang was a highly touted prospect coming out of Taiwan -- and impressed MLB's scouts with his stellar performance at the 2011 World Youth Championship.