The Chinatrust Whales reached an impressive milestone on Saturday when they grabbed their 400th victory with a 4-1 decision over the La New Bears in Tienmu during Chinese Professional Baseball League action.
Reliever extraordinaire Shen Yu-jeh pitched four scoreless innings of three-hit ball in relief of starter Du Chang-wei, who left after the second inning with a stiff shoulder.
Shen picked up his third win of the year.
PHOTO: CHINATRUST WHALES
Offensively for the marine creatures, Cheng Chang-ming, Chen Jien-wei and new arrival Charles Peterson of the US accounted for three of the four runs and a combined 6-for-9.
Manager Hsu Sheng-ming was low-key following the historic win.
"We were simply doing our job," Hsu said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."
The win was coincidentally Hsu's 400th career win, dating back to his days with the Weichuan Dragons.
Whales 6, Bears 1
Five fourth-inning runs by the Whales, highlighted by first baseman Chen Wen-pin's towering three-run homer off Bears starter Elvin Nina turned an early 0-1 deficit into an eventual 6-1 win for the Whales as they kicked off the three-game series with a bang in Hsinchuang on Thursday.
Starter Emiliano Giron improved to 5-3 for the season with a magnificent five hitter in seven innings, allowing an unearned run while fanning nine.
Bears 4, Whales 3
Power slugger Victor Rodriguez's run-scoring infield single in the top of the eighth inning capped a three-run spree for the Bears to break open a 1-1 deadlock in Hsinchu on Sunday.
Down 4-1, the Whales made it interesting in the bottom half of the eighth when a defensive error by La New rightfielder Lu Jung-hsiung allowed a pair of Whales runners to score, bringing them to within a run.
That was as close as the Whales would get thanks to a scoreless ninth by Bears closer Lee Fong-hua to nail the 4-3 win. The win helped avoid a clean sweep by the Whales as they head back home to Kaohsiung to prepare for this week's battles.
Starter Wade Travis of the US upped his record to 2-1 for the year with another quality start, yielding three runs (only one earned) over 7-2/3 innings of work with six strikeouts and a walk.
Bulls 5, Elephants 3
Back-to-back wins by the Sinon Bulls gave the defending champs a 2-1 series advantage over the Brother Elephants after the Bulls lost the series opener 4-3 in Taichung on Thursday to start off the week's play.
Lenin Picota of Panama teamed up with Dominican right-hander Geraldo Padua to hold a potent Elephants lineup to just three runs in the Bulls' 5-3 win in Hsinchuang Friday night.
The Elephants went up 3-2 in the sixth inning on catcher Kuo Yi-fong's sacrifice fly before the Bulls answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on centerfielder Tseng Hua-wei's blooper single off Elephants starter Ichiro Muto to make it 4-3 in favor of the Bulls.
Bulls second baseman Huang "Brother Tong" Chung-yi added an insurance run in the eighth with a line-drive hit to left field resulting in an RBI, making it 5-3.
Picota overcame a shaky two-run first with six straight innings of one-run ball en route to his sixth win of the year, while his counterpart Muto suffered the tough loss to fall below .500 (3-4) for the first time this year.
Bulls 8, Elephants 3
Five early runs over the first three innings set the tone for the Bulls the rest of the way in their 8-3 trouncing of the Elephants on Sunday in Tienmu.
Slumping American righty Harold Woodman (4-3) lost his third consecutive start after beginning the season with a promising 4-0 run.
Shortstop Cheng Jau-han of the Bulls earned his first game-MVP honor of the year with a pair of RBIs on a 2-for-4 night to lead an efficient Bulls attack that produced eight runs on as many hits.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS