Winning three close games by a combined margin of four runs, the Chinatrust Whales completed their series sweep of the Macoto Cobras last week to remain in the hunt for the second half title.
The Whales needed to finish out the season with some help from other clubs to keep their title hopes alive, and they seemed to have gotten both wishes when the Sinon Bulls took three out of four in their own series against the Brother Elephants to move the Whales within two games of the lead in the standings.
Red-hot slugger Huang Kwei-yu's (黃貴裕) two-run blast in Game 1 of the series on Thursday was the decider for the Whales in a 4-2 final as starter Isabel Giron's three-hit ball over seven spectacular innings silenced the Cobras offense for much of the game.
Huang followed his 2-for-4 night from the plate in Game 1 with another 2-for-4 effort in Game 2 on Saturday.
His run-scoring liner to shallow-left in the bottom of the third turned out to be the game-winner again as another strong outing by the Chinatrust staff limited the serpents to just one run in the 2-1 thriller.
Rookie starter Wang Guo-jing (
Sunday's 3-2 decision had the Whales rallying from an early 0-2 deficit with a three-run fourth inning to clinch the victory.
With the bases loaded, Cobras third baseman Lin Yi-shiang's (林義翔) erroneous throw to home that sailed wide on a routine grounder, allowed runners from second and third to score in an amazing two-run play.
Despite being swept by the Whales, lefty ace Lin Ying-jeh (
The first-half champ Lions finally snapped their seven-game winless streak with a 4-1 triumph over the La New Bears in Kaohsiung on Sunday behind a strong performance by set-up man Tsao Jung-yang (
Tsao entered the game to start the fourth with minimal warm-up preparation when ace starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen (
Their loss to the big cats knocked off the new-and-improved Bears from the playoff picture, even though they had been playing as well as any team in the league since early September, with a respectable 14-9-2 record.
Manager Liu Rong-hua's (
The Elephants were counting on seeing a weaker starter from the Bulls since Martinez and the league's ERA leader Yang Jien-fu (陽建福) had both pitched on last Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Instead, Martinez greeted the Elephants hitters with 5-1/3 innings of three-hit ball, allowing the lone Elephants run on a double to third baseman Chen Huai-shan (
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