The series between the Lions and the Bulls began in Tainan Thursday, where the visitors overcame an early three-run deficit by scoring eight unanswered runs to beat the Lions 8-3.
The Bulls rookie standout Yang Chien-fu (
Closer Ramon Morel got the last six outs for his league-leading 22nd save of the season. The right-hander from the Dominican Republic gave up one run in the bottom of the ninth, but was saved by a game-ending doubleplay.
Offensively for the Bulls, the night belonged to team captain Huang Chung-yi (
Game 2 of the series featured Americans Jeff Andra for the Bulls and John Frascatore for the hosts.
Still undefeated for the season, Andra cruised through the first four innings with relative ease in a 1-1 tie. Then the Lions pounded out six straight hits in the fifth inning, scoring four runs. All five of the Lions runs were charged against Andra in one of his shortest outings of the season.
Frascatore allowed only two runs on five hits over eight innings. The 5-2 win evened his record for the year at 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA.
The Lions picked up where they left off on Sunday as they cracked open a scoreless game in the fifth with two runs off Bulls starter Osvaldo Martinez on centerfielder Huang Kang-ling's (
Pan Wei-luen (
The Whales faced the Gida in the third and fourth games of a series in Hsinchuang on Friday, winning 6-2, and in Tienmu on Saturday.
Trailing 2-3 in the final game of the series, the Whales knotted the scor at three apiece in the top of the eighth on cleanup man Hung Chi-fong's (洪啟峰) solo blast off Gida reliever Jesus Pena of the Dominican Republic. The Gida would threaten to score in the bottom of the same inning as pinch hitter Huang Kao-jung (黃高俊) led off the inning with a high bouncer up the middle off of Whales reliever Soong Chao-ji (宋肇基) for base hit. Two outs later with men in the corners, Gida shortstop Osmani Estrada struck out, stranding the runners.
The score would remain three-all until the bottom of the ninth before Huang Kao-jung stepped into the batter's box. With two outs and runners on the corners, Huang bounced the pitch from reliever Lin Chao-huang (
President Chen Shuei-bian (陳水扁) was in attendance for the opening game of the three-game series between the Elephants and the First Securities Agan in Hualien on Thursday, where the Elephants rallied to win 7-5.
The Elephants scored a run in each of the first three innings and the Agan tied it all up in the bottom of the third. The Agan took 4-3 lead in the fourth on right fielder Lu Jung-hsiung's (呂俊雄) infield single. The Elephants then put up three runs of their own in the top of the fifth to send Agan starter Ben Burlingame to the showers early.
Batting leader right fielder Peng Cheng-ming (
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but