Eric Cyr of the President Lions took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Brother Elephants in Sinjhuang on Sunday before Chen Huai-shan's bouncer to short that was ruled a base hit by the official scorer broke it up.
The Canadian lefty, who joined the Lions at the start of this season, still earned a one-hit, complete-game shutout win with the 5-0 final for his first victory of the year. Cyr worked both sides of the plate to near perfection, while punching out a dozen Elephants hitters with pitches that were either badly missed or froze the hitters completely.
Even though he would be the first among those who saw the play to argue that his fellow shortstop Luis Ugueto indeed committed an error on the play, which would have given Cyr the no-hitter outright, the league stood firm on the ruling after further review of the replay.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PRESIDENT LIONS
Slugger Lin Hong-yuan's solo blast off Elephants starter Liu Jung-nan, who lost his third start in a row, began a four-run fourth by the Lions that also had Wu Jia-rong and Yang Dong-yi contributing run-scoring singles in the same inning.
Whales 9, Bulls 1, Game 1
Bulls 4, Whales 2, Game 2
The Sinon Bulls forced a 2-2 series tie against the Chinatrust Whales by splitting Sunday's double-header in Tianmu with a 4-2 win following a 9-1 loss to the marine creatures.
Game 1 in the early afternoon had the Whales taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third on back-to-back RBI singles by shortstop Cheng Chang-ming and third baseman Wang Yi-min's hit off Bulls starter Jorge Cortez with two outs, before the defending champs answered with a seventh-inning run to half the Whales lead at 2-1.
The Whales went on a seven-run splurge in the bottom of the eighth, sending 12 men to the plate on seven straight run-scoring hits (including three doubles), again all after the Bulls had gotten two quick outs to start off the inning.
Whales starter Du Chang-wei picked up his first victory of the season with seven innings of solid effort, allowing the lone Bulls run on eight scattered hits while fanning one and walking none.
As for Du's counterpart, overworked Panamanian righty Cortez, who made his seventh appearance (including three starts) in the Bulls' 17 games up to that point, simply ran out of gas as he dropped to 2-1 with the tough loss.
Sunday night's series finale featured a fine outing by Bulls' right-hander Yang Jien-fu, whose seven innings of two-run ball (only one earned) on six hits and eight strikeouts kept the Whales hitters off balanced throughout the game.
Other than a flat slider that the Whales' Shih Jin-sho drove to shallow-left for a run-scoring single in the bottom of the fourth and a passed ball by catcher Yeh Jung-chang that scored a runner from third in the bottom of the seventh, the Bulls' opening day starter looked sharp after what had been a terrible first three weeks of the season, evening his record at 2-2.
Offensively for the Bulls, shortstop Cheng Jau-han's two-run home run off Whales starter Kao Jung-san in the top of the second led an attack that rang up 10 hits against four different Whales pitchers.
Outfielder Tseng Hua-wei also had his hitting streak stretched to 11 games with a single in each of the two games played on Sunday.
American League
Vladimir Guerrero homered twice and drove in three runs to back a fine pitching performance by John Lackey, and the Los Angeles Angels snapped a three-game skid by beating the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 Sunday.
Chone Figgins also homered for the Angels, who got 13 hits in their most productive offensive showing of the season.
Guerrero hit solo homers in the first and seventh innings, and an RBI single in the fifth. Lackey (2-1) allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings. He struck out five and walked none.
Tigers 1, Indians 0
In Detroit, Chris Shelton hit his Major League Baseball-leading eighth home run and Mike Maroth threw seven shutout innings for the Tigers.
Shelton homered over the left-center field fence against Cliff Lee (1-1) with one out in the fourth inning. Five of Shelton's homers have been solo shots.
Maroth (2-0) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked two. Maroth's start had been pushed back three days because of elbow soreness.
Red Sox 3, Mariners 2
In Boston, Josh Beckett won his third straight start and Alex Gonzalez had an RBI single for the Red Sox.
Coming off the best of his four seasons with Florida, Beckett (3-0) joined Boston in an offseason trade and has allowed one earned run in seven innings in each of his three starts for a 1.29 ERA. He gave up six hits and one walk with five strikeouts.
Yankees 9, Twins 3
In Minneapolis, Jason Giambi hit two long home runs and New York avoided what would have been Minnesota's first three-game sweep of the Yankees since 1991.
Wang Chien-ming (
Brad Radke (2-1) allowed three homers, increasing his total to seven in three starts, and gave up six runs and 10 hits in six innings.
National League
Albert Pujols' third home run of the game, a go-ahead two-run shot in the ninth inning, gave the St. Louis Cardinals an 8-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
Pujols' eighth homer came on a 1-2 pitch from David Weathers (0-1), ending a game that featured five lead changes. His second career three-homer game and sixth career game-ending homer topped off a 4-2 opening homestand at new Busch Stadium. He also matched career highs with five RBIs and four runs scored.
Rich Aurilia had three hits and two RBIs and Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns homered on consecutive at-bats in the fifth for the Reds.
Mets 9, Brewers 3
In New York, Xavier Nady drove in three runs with a home run and a sacrifice fly and Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer for the Mets.
David Wright had a single and double and scored twice for New York.
The Mets improved to 9-2, their best start in franchise history. They also set a franchise record by winning their first four series of the season.
Geoff Jenkins had a two-run homer for the Brewers, who snapped New York's seven-game winning streak with an 8-2 win Saturday.
Cubs 7, Pirates 3
In Pittsburgh, Todd Walker hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Aramis Ramirez added a two-run shot for the Cubs.
Derrek Lee hit a two-run double that chased starter Ian Snell (0-1) in a four-run sixth -- his 43rd hit against the Pirates since 2004, the most by any MLB player against another club in that span.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set