Surpassing two-time winner slugger Peng Cheng-ming (
This was the first time in Bears history, formerly the Agan, that a player from the team received the honor.
PHOTO: CPBL
Despite another awesome showing of power and finesse by Peng at the plate, members of the Chinese Baseball Writers Association (CBWA) felt Shih's league-high 24 hits and .357 batting average (No. 2 in league), along with his two game-winning RBI contributed more to the overall success of his team.
Shih was the single most important factor in the Bears' 8-0-2 record last month.
"I'm flattered by the vote of confidence that the CBWA have given me," Shih said. "It's a great honor just to be mentioned in the same sentence as "Chia-Chia" [Peng's nickname]."
ON THE MOUND
President Lions closer Michael Garcia beat out Sinon Bull starter Yang Jien-fu by a 23-to-3 margin to win Pitcher-of-the-Month honors.
Still a perfect 13-for-13 in save opportunities, the American right-hander posted a 1-0 mark with five saves and an incredible zero ERA last month.
He struck out 32 batters in the 18-1/3 innings.
Garcia essentially shortens the game by at lease two innings because as long as the Lions lead through the seventh inning, they end up winning the game.
His exceptional command with all his pitches led to an unearthly 64-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the 139 batters he faced, makes Garcia the ideal man on the mound in a tight game as runners are rarely able to advance.
Garcia's tremendous dominance is the main reason why the Lions are 15-7 in games decided by three runs or less.
"Garcia is at his best when the game is on the line," Peng Cheng-ming said. "He usually gets ahead on the count with his fastball in the high 140s [kph]. Then he throws a nasty slider to finish you off as his great velocity forces hitters to look for the fastball."
Peng, the league leader with a .438 batting average, is remains hitless against Garcia in over 10 confrontations.
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on