Wang Chuan-jia's grand slam off the Brother Elephants reliever Chuang Hong-liang capped a seven-run rally in the top of the ninth as the Macoto Cobras beat the Elephants 8-7 in front of a sellout crowd in Hualien on Saturday.
Trailing Brother 6-1 in a game that was all Elephants through the first eight frames, the serpents began the ninth facing Blas Cedeno, the Chinese Professional Baseball League's leader in saves with nine to his credit, with a single by Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien and two quick outs.
The next five Cobras batters reached base via a base hit or a walk to score three runs and load the bases for Wang's monstrous swing that put his team ahead 8-6.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
The Elephants made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth when cleanup man Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min knocked in a run with a lining single off Cobras closer Felix Villegas to cut the lead to one, prompting the Cobras to send Lin "Little Chick" En-yu (the scheduled starter in Sunday's game) into the game, who retired the final Elephants batter on a fly-out to end the game.
"Lin wanted to come in, and I thought for the last out, it was worth it," Cobras manager Wu Fu-lien said after the game about sending his starter for the next game in to preserve the victory.
Set-up man Lee Ming-jin got the win for getting two outs in the eighth, while Lin earned his first save of the season in a rare relief appearance.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
Taking the loss for the Elephants was Cedeno, who saw his team drop its fifth straight game, all by two runs or less.
Cobras 4, Elephants 1
Lin En-yu had little trouble in Sunday's series finale in Taitung where the Cobras rode his right arm to their fourth straight win in a 4-1 final.
The Cobras scored a run in each of the first four innings against game-loser Yofu Tstsu, to spot Lin a 4-0 lead that he kept until the bottom of the ninth in a three-hit, complete-game shutout bid.
It took a one-out walk and two singles by the Elephants in the bottom of the ninth for the Elephants' lone run in the game to break up what would have been Lin's third complete-game shutout win of the year.
Offensively for the serpents, Hsieh's two RBIs on a 3-for-5 day led an attack that rang up a dozen hits off a tired Brother staff. Leadoff man Yang Rei-chih also chipped in three hits with an RBI.
Bears 2, bulls 1
Lefty ace Wu Si-yo of the La New Bears remained undefeated for year at 6-0 with a 2-1 win over the Sinon Bulls in a complete-game performance at Kaohsiung on Saturday.
Wu outpitched Bulls righty Clint Weibl of the US in a classic pitchers' duel that had the home hosts drawing first blood in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by outfielder Chen Chin-fong.
The Bulls answered in the top of the fifth inning when catcher Yeh Jung-chang's two-out triple off Wu scored Su Jien-rong all the way from first, only to see the Bears reclaim a 2-1 advantage in the same inning on Shih Chih-wei's RBI double that turned out to be the difference in the game.
Bears center-fielder Huang Long-yi's diving catch with a runner on second and two outs on a blooper by Yeh to end the top of the seventh kept the 2-1 Bears lead intact, because the Bulls would have easily scored the runner on second to force a 2-2 tie at that point.
Weibl (4-3) fell victim to a lack of run support after yet another quality start.
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