The red-hot bats of the Brother Elephants that have come on strong lately are the main reason that the Elephants have quietly slipped past the fourth-placed President Lions and taken over the third-place spot in the league standings.
Led by the ever-consistent all-star center fielder Chen Chih-yuan (
"This [the Elephants] is definitely a different ball club from the one I saw in March and April," well-known local baseball commentator Jack Chen said. "This is more like the defending champions that I'm used to seeing."
The last time the Elephants lost a series was in mid-April.
Round Up
The First Securities Agan were no match against the high-flying Elephants in the makeup game in Hsinchuang on Tuesday night.
Elephant base runners were busy all game with a season-high eight steals, only one shy of tying the league record set by the former China Times Eagles in 1996.
Agan starter Greg Bicknell of Fresno, California failed to keep 3-0 lead after 1-1/2 innings of play as he allowed four runs in the bottom of the second en route to a 5-9 loss, his eighth of the season.
Still winless for the season, the former Luka of the TML was released by the Agan after the game for a poor showing in his second visit to Taiwan.
Bicknell is 0-8 with an ERA of 5.05 in 13 appearances, mostly in the starting role.
Also in action were the Bulls against the Gida in Hsinchu and Hsinchuang on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having clinched the title for the first half of the season, Bull manager Chen Wei-chen (
Game 1 of the four-game series featured the two newcomers on the Gida team: starter Peter Moylan and third baseman Osmani Estrada.
The "foreign help" immediately paid dividends as Moylan held the Bulls to two runs on eight hits over seven innings of play for his first win of the season while Estrada went 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBI's in the 4-2 Gida victory.
Game 2 of the series began with the Bulls jumping to an early 6-0 lead after only two innings of play.
Bulls ace Jeff Andra went 5-1/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits.
Leading by a score of 6-3 in the seventh, Bulls relievers Kuo Yun-chih (
Upcoming Games
The Bulls will finish the series against the Gida in Taichung on Friday and Saturday before the first half of the season comes to an end.
Caught between resting as many as his regular starters as possible and winning the last homestand of the season, manager Chen Wei-chen will have some tough decisions to make against a feisty Gida team.
The Elephants host the Whales in Hsinchuang, with one game yesterday and one today, and then a game in Tienmu on Sunday.
Trailing the second-placed Whales by 2-1/2 games, a sweep by the Elephants could move them into second place.
The Lions will travel to Kaohsing for a three-game series against the Agan. Game 1 was yesterday, and games 2 and 3 will be tomorrow and Sunday.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
Defending champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday led the way into the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals, with Carlos Alcaraz hot on their heels after a straight-sets victory of his own. Sinner shrugged off a mid-match weather delay lasting nearly three hours as he advanced 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) over Adrian Mannarino. Alcaraz, the second seed who has reached the final in his past six tournaments, hammered Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi 6-1, 6-4. After sweeping the opening set in 28 minutes, Alcaraz hit a speed bump, dropping his serve to trail 2-4. He promptly regained the break, then fought through a marathon ninth game
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
RSS