The former Gida, who went 30-64-6 to finish second-to-last place last season, seem to have transformed themselves into a solid contender under first-year manager Kuo Tai-yuen (
The Cobras have won close games this year.
Ace closer Huang Chin-chih (黃欽智) has been the main factor in the team's early success as he converted all three of his save opportunities.
Huang hasn't given up an earned run in over six innings.
"His change of speed is what's throwing hitters' timing off," one teammate said under the condition of anonymity. "And his breaking stuff is also catching the corners of the plate."
Huang moved from starter to closer following a shoulder injury. It will be interesting to see whether manager Kuo will reassign Huang to his starting rotation or turn him into the "John Smoltz" of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.
Round Up
The President Lions took care of business against the lowly Chinatrust Whales in Tuesday's makeup game at Hsinchuang with a final score of 6-0.
The shutout victory breathed new life into the Lions as they climbed out of the cellar for the first time this season.
Pinch hitter Tseng Yang-chih (
A four-run eighth, capped by Lions shortstop Yang Seng's (
Reliever Chen Yang-kai (
Cobras 9, La New Bears 4
The showdown between the Cobras and the La New Bears in Kaohsiung on Tuesday night never lived up to the pre-game hype as the two former TML squads squared off for the first time this season.
The Cobras' offense went to work on Bears starter Phillip Bailey with a pair of first-inning runs and quickly made it 5-2 after just five innings of play.
Bears slugger Pan Chung-wei's (
Even though the final score read 9-4, the Bears never had the timely hits necessary to pile on the runs in any single inning, with their 12 hits producing only four runs.
Cobras 5, Bears 2
Game 2 of the four-game series on Wednesday night featured the league's first leadoff home run of the season, as Bears centerfielder Huang Long-yi (黃龍義) drove a slider from Cobras starter Lin Ying-jeh (林英傑) over the left field fence.
The 1-0 Bear lead was short-lived as the Cobras offense rung up four straight in the top of the second against Bears lefty Hsu Yu-wei (
Poor run production once again hurt the Bears in the 5-2 final.
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