Kuo Dai-yong's three-run homer over the leftfield wall capped a four-run first for the Chinatrust Whales as they toppled the Macoto Cobras in a rain-shortened 5-2 final in Sinjhuang on Saturday night for their third straight win this week.
The victory not only moved the Whales up to a second-place tie with the La New Bears in the latest standings, but also kept their playoff hopes alive with the regular season winding down in the final two weeks of play.
Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh also bounced back nicely from a disheartening one-run loss on Thursday that nipped a career-high six-game winning streak for the emerging lefty ace with five solid innings of two-run ball to get back on the winning track.
"It was a big result for us because it showed that we can still win it [the second half title] if we keep trying our best" Shen said after the game.
His team now trails the top-ranked President Lions by three-and-a-half games with 10 games remaining in the season.
The contest began with the Whales taking advantage of a struggling Chang Hsien-chih who had not won a start for the Cobras since Sept. 1 with four quick runs in the opening frame on a single, a double, a pair of walks and Kuo's towering blast.
Even though the Cobras answered with two runs off Shen in the top of the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Chen Yuan-jia and Wong Tsai-sheng, that turned out to be the only runs they scored before a downpour forced the home plate umpire to call the game at the end of the fifth.
Offensively for the Whales, Kao Jung-chiang also connected for a single and a double with an RBI to help complement Kuo's three-RBI performance.
As for the Cobras, who are guaranteed a spot in the upcoming postseason for winning the first half, despite having lost eight of their last ten, the outlook may be bleak if manager Wu Fu-lien cannot come up with a winning formula soon.
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,
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