Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's blooper to shallow-right landed just inside fair territory and scored two runners for the Sinon Bulls in the bottom of the eighth inning as they rallied from a one-run deficit to top the President Lions 2-1 in Taichung on Saturday evening.
The batting champ and home run king of last season took a knee-high offering from Lions starter Pete Munro and popped it to shallow-right for what looked like a harmless foul ball with two outs and runners at the corners.
But the ball landed 0.3m inside the first base line, and with both runners going on the pitch, the Bulls easily scored the go-ahead run.
The loss was the fifth straight for the Lions as they dropped to a 4-12 record despite a solid effort from Munro, who took a shutout two outs into the eighth before running into some trouble at the end.
The classic pitchers' duel saw neither offense plate a single run against the stingy pitching of Munro and Bulls starter Alfredo Gonzalez through the first seven innings.
Then came the decisive eighth, which saw the Lions jump on top when Yang Seng reached first on an error by Bulls second baseman Cheng Jau-hang, took second on an infield single on the ensuing play, reached reaching third on a double steal and eventually scored the tie-breaking run on Tilson Brito's sacrifice-fly.
The Bulls would promptly respond with Yu Hsien-ming singling to right off Munro with two outs before Cheng redeemed himself with another single to place runners at the corners to set the table for the Prince's game-turning swing.
Kuo Yong-chih tossed a perfect ninth for his third save of the season, preserving the win for reliever Shibakusa Hiroshi, who picked up his second win for getting an inning-ending out in the eighth.
Taking the loss for the Lions was Munro, who pitched well enough to win lacked run support by the Lions offense.
Bears 2, Whales 3
The Chinatrust Whales held off a tenacious rally by the La New Bears as they eked out a 3-2 win in Tienmu on Saturday night for their fourth win in the last five games.
Nee Fu-deh retired all but one of the five batters he faced, despite giving up a one-out double in the top of the ninth that put the tying run in scoring position with his team leading by one, to wrap the win for Whales starter Tseng Jau-hao, who threw seven-and-two-thirds innings of five-hit ball against a potent Bears lineup to keep the Whales in the game.
The staff ace for the Whales took a shutout into the eighth but saw his bid for the shutout disappear when Chen Fong-min tattooed his fastball with a man on first for his second round-tripper of the year to cut a comfortable 3-0 Whales lead to 3-2.
After the next Bears batter reached first on a single off Tseng, manager Hsieh Chang-hehn decided to bring in Nee, who induced a lazy fly to center to end the Bears threat.
Three runs by the Whales offense in the fifth broke a scoreless tie, but that was all the scoring that either team could manage until Chen's two-run blast.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB