Yang Jien-fu made fools out of several Brother Elephants hitters on Sunday with a nasty slider that dropped late and hard to guide the Sinon Bulls to a convincing 6-1 win over their archrivals in Taichung.
The opening-day starter for the Bulls earned his team-leading 11th victory of the season by pitching well into the eighth inning in a four-hit, one-run gem before being relieved by bullpen mates Alfredo Gonzalez and Billy Sylvester.
The win by the Bulls capped a perfect week of play for the defending champs as they swept the Elephants in the four-game series by taking the first three by a total margin of four runs before Sunday's series-clincher.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The game actually began with the Elephants drawing first blood against Yang on Chen "Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan's two-out single over the middle in the top of the first for a quick 1-0 lead before the home Bulls fought back with six unanswered runs in the eventual win.
Run-scoring singles by Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and Tseng Yang-chih netted the Bulls a pair of runs in the bottom of the first before they added three more in the second, capped by Chang Jien-ming's two-run blast to deep-eight off Elephants starter Yeh Yong-jeh for a comfortable 5-1 lead.
The potent Sinon offense enjoyed a fine day at the plate with four different players getting multi-hit games, led by Yu Hsien-ming's 3-for-5 effort with one RBI.
PHOTO: LIAO YAHO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
As for the slumping Elephants, Chen's first-inning RBI single was the lone highlight of the game on a night where they never seemed comfortable facing Yang.
Bears 9, Whales 1
Behind a strong outing in a rare start by right-hander Huang Jung-chung, the La New Bears cruised past the Chinatrust Whales with a dominant 9-1 win in the night game of the doubleheader at Tienmu on Sunday to extend their non-losing streak to six straight.
Former high-school standout Huang, who had spent several seasons in the Boston Red Sox's minor-league system before joining the Bears at the start of this season, came out of the bullpen in place of an ailing Tsai Ying-fong with six solid innings of quality start for his first career victory in Taiwan.
Huang Long-yi's liner to right with the bases loaded got the Bears on the board with a 1-0 lead in the opening inning before the explosive Bears connected for four hits on top of drawing a walk in a four-run fourth to make it 5-0 through the first four frames of play.
The Whales finally managed to crack open the scoring gate in the sixth with a run on three singles off Huang to avoid a shutout after the Bears had scored twice more earlier in the inning.
But that was the only run that they could muster off the Bears with setup man Lee Fong-hua retiring the side in order over a perfect seventh and eighth before closer Ramon Morel finished off with a scoreless ninth to wrap up the win.
Bears 3, Whales 3
Three ninth-inning runs by the visiting Bears forced a dramatic 3-all tie in the day game versus the Whales on Sunday afternoon, wasting a stellar performance by Whales staff ace Tseng Jau-hao, who saw his would-be ninth victory of the season vanish in disappointment.
Even though the Bears did not end up with a win, the tie, sparked by a ninth-inning rally that avoided what would have been an embarrassing shutout loss for the league leaders at the hands of the fifth-placed Whales, provided them with a tremendous moral boost that kept their five-game non-losing streak intact.
Trailing 3-0 in the top of the ninth, the Bears put runners on second and third with one out on slugger Chen Chin-fong's double off the leftfield wall off Tseng to set up Pan Chung-wei's two-run double that brought home both runners.
Rookie Jiang Chih-tsong then followed with a clutch single off Tseng after the Whales pitcher had gotten the second out of the inning to knot things up at 3-all.
In came a wild Morel in his second game appearance of the day, issuing three walks during the ninth to load the bases before getting out of the jam by inducing a game-ending fly-out to deep-center that had his entire club holding its breath before a collective final sigh of relief.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was