Four costly errors by the Team White defense that led to four unearned runs in a six-run eighth broke wide open what had been a closely fought battle as Team Red ran away with a wild 11-3 win in the Chinese Professional Baseball League All-Star Game in Tainan on Sunday night.
A sellout crowd of 10,500-plus, the fourth largest in league history for the annual mid-summer classic, saw Team Red -- consisting of the best and brightest players from the Chinatrust Whales, the Brother Elephant and the Macoto Cobras -- run out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame off Team White starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen on back-to-back RBI singles from Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min and Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien.
But Team White -- made up of the top players from the President Lions, the Sinon Bulls and the La New Bears -- was able to counter with a run of its own in the bottom of the third when Lions rookie outfielder Pan Wu-hsiung took Elephants pitcher Yeh Yong-jeh deep for a solo home run to make it 2-1 in favor of Team Red.
Pan Wu-hsiung became just the tenth player in league history to hit a home run in his first All-Star Game appearance.
Whales outfielder Gee Jung-lin would add to Team Red's lead by a deuce in the top of the fourth with a two-run shot off Bears pitcher Huang Jung-chung to give his team a 4-1 advantage, which lasted until the seventh as Team White closed the gap once again to just a run in a 4-3 contest with Huang "Easy" Long-yi's two-run dinger off Whales pitcher Shen Yu-jeh.
That was as close as Team White would get as the record-setting four errors in the eighth that allowed six runs to score easily for Team Red blew the once-closely contented game wide open.
Eleven Team-Red hitters made their way to the plate in the decisive eighth against two Team White hurlers.
Team Red would add another run in the top of the ninth before all was said and done to up their total run production to eleven, tying the league mark for most runs scored in an All-Star Game while also making it one of the more dramatic games in recent All-Star Game history.
Picking up the win was Team Red starter Liao Yu-cheng who allowed no runs on a hit in two innings to beat his counterpart Du Du, who gave up two runs on three hits in his two innings pitched to disappoint the home crowd.
Gee was voted the game MVP for going 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs.
It was the veteran Whales outfielder's sixth All-Star Game appearance, but his first to take home the MVP trophy.
"I still can't believe what happened [hitting the homer and winning the MVP], because this is not the kind of thing I would do," Gee said after the game.
He is homerless in the 55 games that he has played this year, with his last regular-season home run dating back to last September.
With the victory, Team Red not only extended its non-losing streak in the mid-summer classic to four games in a row, but also walked away with a hefty NT$300,000 check that will be divided among the participating players as the three-day festival came to a successful end.
Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien overcame a slow start in the preliminary rounds of the All-Star Game's Home Run Derby by beating defending champ Huang Kwei-yu in a sudden-death format.
The Cobras' star slugger was awarded NT$60,000 for his outstanding showing in Saturday's competition.
In doing so, he also denied Huang's bid to become the first player to repeat in the home-run hitting contest.
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