After showing some signs of life in two losing, yet valiant efforts on Tuesday and Wednesday by a combined margin of three runs against a powerful ChinaTrust Whales club, the First Securities Agan went back to its old form in games 3 and 4 of the series, losing by a combined score of 4-25 on Friday and Saturday.
While newly named Agan skipper, Tsai Rong-tsung (
"My number-one concern is the DL list," Lin told reporters prior to last Tuesday's series opener in Chiayi. "I hope some of them [injured players] will be back before the end of the week to help our ball club."
The story of the series was the continued offensive fireworks that Whales third baseman Juan Melo demonstrated as he finished the four-game series with an awesome 6-for-16 performance, including 10 RBIs.
The switch-hitting native of the Dominican Republic already has two homers in the six games since his arrival two weeks ago.
The four-game series was the only one of the three that finished in its entirety over the weekend, because wet weather forced both games originally scheduled for Sunday in Tienmu (Sinon Bulls verses Brother Elephants) and in Hualien (President Lions verses Makoto Gida) to be rescheduled for a later date.
The Elephants dominated the league-leading Bulls in a 5-0 shutout on Thursday in Kaohsiung, behind the stellar performance of starter Wu Chun-yi (吳俊億), who is 5-0 against the Bulls dating back to last season, and is in the middle of a four-game winning streak this year.
Not having lost a series all season long, the Bulls fought back the next night in Taichung to even the series at one game apiece with a 3-1 triumph.
Starter Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南) kept the Elephant hitters off balanced all night as he gave up the only run by the Bulls, while scattering five hits over six innings of work. Relievers Yu Wen-ping (余文彬) and Osvaldo Martinez combined to pitch three scoreless frames to preserve the win for Tsai.
Offensively for the Bulls, third baseman Chang Tai-shan (
The Elephants missed opportunities all night as they managed to put runners on base during every inning, only to fell victim to four double plays.The series ended in a tie, because game 3 will not be played until June 16th in Hsinchuang.
Game 1 between the Lions and the Gida in Hsinchuang on Thursday ended in a 3-3 draw as a controversial double-play call by the third base umpire and the home plate umpire in the top of the eighth ended what could have been a big inning for the Lions. Instead of having men on second and third with one out, the call ended the scoreless Lion eighth.
Upon further review by the CPBL's officiating committee, both umpires were suspended for two games. The tie snapped the six-game losing streak for the Lions, but cost starter Joe Davenport his ninth win of the season. Only one of the three runs given up by the hard-throwing ace from the US was earned, as he missed a golden opportunity to add to his league-leading eight wins.
Game 2 between the two clubs in Hualien on Saturday ended with a 7-1 score in favor of the Lions. Not nearly as dramatic as game 1, game 2 treated fans in Hualien to an excellent outing by Lions rookie sensation Pan Wei-luen (
In his first game since returning from a bought with the chickenpox two weeks ago, Pan fanned seven Gida hitters in as many shutout innings, while only yielding a lone single in the fifth.
The Gida avoided a shutout by scoring their only run of the game off Lions reliever Sheng po-chang (
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB