The 5-1 final in favor of the Bulls prevented a clean sweep by the Elephants in the three-game series and forced a 10-all split between the two rivals in their 20 regular season meetings, which further highlighted the evenness between the two clubs ahead of the Championship Series.
Pitching for the first time in nearly six weeks, Bull starter Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南) allowed just one run on four hits in seven strong innings in a brilliant performance. The victory netted Tsai his 10th win of the season and gave the Bulls' fans a glimpse of hope in finishing the season in grand fashion. After winning the first-half title with relative ease, the Bulls have not been as dominating in the second half primarily because a serious shoulder injury has sidelined Tsai for some time.
Last season's Rookie of the Year, who won nine games for the Bulls in the first half could have given the Bulls at least five more wins during the time he missed to keep pace with the Elephants.
Tsai's roaring return to the mound could very well be the missing piece in the Bulls' march to its first Championship trophy because he can be the third starter behind team ace Jeff Andra and Osvaldo Martinez to solidify a rotation that formerly had only two legitimate starters.
Offensively for the Bulls, the three triples during the four-run sixth in Sunday's contest not only tied the league record for most triples in an inning, but also convinced skipper Chen Wei-cheng (
The Lions followed their two shutout wins over the Makoto Gida earlier in the week with a 10-2 rout on Friday night. The win kept their title hopes alive for the day until the Elephants' title-clinching win in Tienmu on Saturday night.
Picking up where they left off in games 1 and 2 of the series, the Lions offense spotted starter Jose Parra of the Dominican Republic a five-run first-inning lead on five hits.
The lead proved to be ample because Parra kept the Gida off the board in the six innings he pitched by yielding only a pair of hits and fanning three. It wasn't until the top of ninth that the Gida offense finally broke through for two runs against Lion reliever Shen Po-chang (沈柏蒼) to snap their record-setting 36-inning scoreless streak.
Having learned that their postseason hope had been eliminated by the Elephants' victory over the Bulls earlier on Saturday, the Lions fell short in their rally against the Gida in Tainan as they lost by a score of 1-4.
Gida starter Shad Williams went the distance in the two-hitter as he pocketed the first win of the season. Williams had been winless in his six previous starts since joining the team in early August.
Thursday night's 4-3 thriller gave the visiting Chinatrust Whales the last laugh against a home First Securities Agan squad that led for most of the game.
In a classic seesaw battle, the Agan struck first with a pair of runs in the first. It wasn't until the top of the eighth that the Whales knotted the game at 2-all with two straight wild pitches by Agan reliever Hsu Wen-hsiung (
The Agan would retake the lead in the bottom of the eighth on right fielder Tsai Shih-fan's (蔡士凡) solo homer, only to see it disappear an inning later. The bottom of the order for the Whales managed to string together three straight hits against Agan closer Lee Fong-hua (李風華) to put the Whales up for good.
"Why bother having these relievers around?" a furious Agan manager Tsai Rong-chung (
The two teams had to settle for a 1-1 tie in the series because Sunday night' s finale was postponed to Oct. 6 due to wet weather.
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
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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