Nakagomi Sin of the did not disappoint Brother Elephants fans with his near-perfect outing and a 2-0 victory over the Sinon Bulls in the opener of the 2003 Taiwan Series.
Riding high on his six-game winning streak, the Japanese veteran was just one infield single shy of pitching a no-hitter.
Bulls starter Jeff Andra of the US had the support of outstanding defensive plays to keep the seven hits that he yielded from scoring more than a run.
The Elephants offense struck in the bottom of the fourth with shortstop Chen Rei-cheng's (陳瑞振) single up the middle to knock home his older brother, Elephants catcher Chen Rei-chang (陳瑞昌) from second to give his team an 1-0 lead. Chen Rei-chang had belted a two-out double off Andra to reach second on the previous play.
Taking the mound for Andra in the middle of the fifth, Bulls reliever Yu Wen-pin (
"We really had our chances at the plate as a few of our players had good wood on the ball," Bulls Manager Chen Wei-cheng (
Elephants Peng Cheng-ming and Chen Chih-yuan extended their postseason hitting streaks to 11 and six, respectively. But the Elephants' inability to come up with hits with runners on base lead to the low score.
"I am glad we got this one," Elephants Manger Lin Yi-tseng (林易增) said.
Regular-season victory champ Yokota Hisanori is scheduled to pitch Game 2 for the Elephants on Sunday.
bad gamble
The amount of money wagered by gamblers over the championship opener is believed to be over NT$1 billion.
With its return to prominence, professional baseball once again faces allegations that several games may have been fixed during the regular season.
Su Li-wei (
Whales Manager Lin Chung-chiou (林仲秋) resigned to take responsibility for the scandal.
"The hasty acceptance of my resignation by the ball club suggests that they believe that I was also involved in fixing games," Lin said.
Whale General Manager Lin Ming-mao (
The case is now being examined by investigators.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier