CPBLSecond-half action opened in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League on Friday night with the La New Bears easily handling the Brother Elephants in a 5-1 victory in Sinjhuang and the Sinon Bulls rallying for three runs late in the game to top the President Lions 5-3 at Taichung.
La New starter Kenny Rayborn became the league's first 10-win man with eight outstanding innings of work, allowing a run on four hits while fanning four and walking four.
The American right-hander, who also leads the league with his earned run average (ERA) with a miniscule 1.53 mark, shook off a shaky first inning in which he surrendered the lone Elephants run in the game on an infield single and a timely run-scoring double by Chen Guan-ren, and finished off strong by allowing just one more Elephants batter to reach beyond first base over the next seven frames.
PHOTO: AP
Doing the damage at the plate for the Bears were catcher Chen Fong-min and first baseman Pan Chung-wei, both going 2-for-4 on the night with three combined RBIs to champion an attack that scored five unanswered runs off 11 hits against three different Elephants pitchers in the win.
Taking the loss was Elephants starter Joey Dawley of the US, who gave up three runs, two earned, on nine hits over seven decent innings, but fell victim to a punchless offense that could not generate many hits, let alone runs. Shortstop Chen Rei-cheng's 3-for-3 night was the lone highlight for an Elephants lineup that managed only five hits in the contest.
Bulls 5, Lions 3
Huang Chung-yi's game-tying solo blast off Lions reliever Lin Yueh-ping in the bottom of the eighth started what ended up being a three-run inning for the Bulls as they turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 triumph at Taichung on Friday night.
It was the veteran slugger's 98th homer in an illustrious career that includes 1,431 hits and counting, and nine all-league selections from his second-base position to put him two homers shy of the 100-homer, 1,000-hit plateau presently occupied solely by his teammate Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan (1,070 hits and 168 homers).
After Huang's solo shot off Lin Yueh-ping tied the game at 3-all in the eighth, catcher Yeh Jung-chang would follow with an opposite-field single that scored the go-ahead run for the Bulls before Lin Tsung-nan's run-scoring triple made it 5-3.
The game began with both starters Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen for the Lions and Alfredo Gonzalez of the Bulls breezing through the first two innings before the home hosts drew first blood on outfielder Tseng Hua-wei's RBI groundout in the bottom of the third for a 1-0 lead.
The 1-0 lead for the Bulls lasted less than an inning as the Lions fought back with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth, courtesy of right-fielder Chen Lien-hong's two-run single after the first two hitters had reached via a leadoff walk and a single to start the inning.
The Lions actually added to their 2-1 lead with what seemed to be an insurance run in the top of the seventh, when Kao Chih-kang's pinch-hit double knocked in Chen to make it 3-1 in favor of the visitors before the Bulls responded with a run in the bottom of the inning to set the stage for the game-turning rally in the eighth.
Gonzalez was credited with the win, his eighth of the year, for holding the Lions to three runs on five hits over eight innings, despite trailing the Lions for most of the game.
Suffering the loss was Lin Yueh-ping, who blew his first save of the year in six chances with the three-run eighth that cost fellow starter Pan the win.
Pan left the game with a 3-2 lead after the seventh, in position for his eighth win of the season.
Major Leagues
Juan Uribe homered and had five RBIs as the Chicago White Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 on Friday after the two central combatants in a brawl earlier this season chatted and shook hands.
Cubs catcher Michael Barrett apparently apologized to A.J. Pierzynski in the outfield before the game and the two were seen shaking hands. Barrett punched Pierzynski in the jaw after the White Sox catcher ran him over at the plate on May 20. Barrett returned on Friday from the resulting 10-game suspension.
Uribe had a two-run, bases-loaded single in the first, a run-scoring double in the third and a two-run homer off reliever Roberto Novoa in the eighth.
The White Sox jumped on Sean Marshall (4-7) for three first-inning runs but the Cubs got two back in the bottom half against Jon Garland (7-3), who went six innings for the win.
Back-to-back, two-out doubles by Joe Crede and Uribe made it 4-2 in the third.
In other interleague games it was:
* Tigers 7, Pirates 6
* Yankees 2, Mets 0
* Devil Rays 11, Nationals 1
* Blue Jays 8, Phillies 1
* Reds 9, Indians 8
* Marlins 5, Red Sox 2
* Braves 5, Orioles 3
* Twins 8, Brewers 2
* Rangers 3, Astros 1
* Royals 7, Cardinals 5, 10 innings
* Rockies 2, Mariners 0
* Diamondbacks 6, Athletics 4
* Dodgers 6, Angels 1
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with