Records were shattered in Tainan on Friday night as the President Lions' Tilson Brito set new league marks by launching his 32nd homer and driving in his 103rd RBI of the year in a wild 12-11 Lions victory over the Macoto Cobras.
The Dominican slugger who rewrote the record books with an incredible year at the plate knew it the second he crushed a pitch by Cobras starter Lin Jing-min for the historic homer.
Perhaps overshadowed by Brito's outstanding individual performance, Kao Guo-ching also connected for his career-high 18th homer of the year, a two-run shot that rallied the Lions from one down to run the Cobras out of town in a slugfest that featured 23 combined runs on 33 total hits to keep the Lions' slim lead over the second-place La New Bears at a half-game.
The contest began with the Cobras pounding out five straight hits off Chang Chih-chiang to chase the Lions starter before he recorded even an out. The offensive outburst was highlighted by Deng Shih-yang's two-run homer to help the Cobras jump out to a quick 5-0 lead.
The Lions would get two of the five runs back with Kao's opposite-field single to cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the first, but back-to-back RBI singles by Chou Si-chi and Wang Chuan-jia took the serpents' lead back to five at 7-2 in the top of the second.
The Cobras struck again for three more runs in the third inning to claim a 10-2 advantage.
Just when all thought the Lions had been tamed by the Cobras fangs, the home cats showed why they are the best in the business with eight unanswered runs over the next three innings, capped by a four-run fifth that saw the them bat around to knot the game at 10-all.
Having wasted a once-sizable eight-run lead, the Cobras promptly regained an 11-10 edge in the sixth on Deng's one-run single up the middle, a lead that would last for two innings until Kao's thunderous swing turned the game around in the eighth inning.
Picking up his second save of the year was Tsai Shih-chin, who pitched a scoreless ninth against his former team, to preserve the win for setup man Pan Jung-rong. Pan recorded three outs in the eighth for his second win of the season.
Hit with the tough loss for the Cobras was reliever Andy Van Hekken, who served up Kao's two-run homer in a blown save opportunity despite the fact that his team actually outhit the Lions 18-15 in the game.
Bears 11, Whales 3
Unlike Thursday night when a ninth-inning single by Shih Chih-wei was needed to win the game against the Cobras, the La New Bears beat the Chinatrust Whales in an 11-3 decision in a wet Kaohsiung County Stadium on Friday evening to keep pace with the Lions in the close title race.
Tsai Ying-fong tossed six effective innings of three-run ball, while Lin Chih-sheng and Jiang Chih-tsong drove in a pair of runs each to make it look easy in the Bears' 200th team victory.
Chinatrust actually drew first blood against Tsai in the opening inning on a sacrifice fly by top RBI man Carlos Villalobos to lead it 1-0 before the Bears fought back with four runs in the bottom of the same inning.
All four of the Bears runs were unearned in the first as a fatal error by the Whales defense that missed a chance to turn what would have been an inning-ending double play to bail out starter Shen Yu-jeh.
Tsai shook off a questionable first inning with five shutout innings through the sixth to take a 4-1 lead.
The hapless Whales hitters were unable to do any damage while the Chinatrust pitching staff surrendered two more runs to make it 6-1 in favor of the Bears.
It would take Yeh Chang-long's solo homer in the seventh off Tsai to give the Whales their second run of the game before they tacked on another to reduce the Bears advantage to 6-3.
And that was as close as they got as the Bears showcased more offense in the bottom of the same inning with five unanswered runs to seal the win.
MARRED FINAL: As most of Senegalese players walked off the pitch after a controversial decision, some supporters threw objects and attempted to get onto the pitch Senegal on Sunday won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner sunk hosts Morocco 1-0 after a chaotic final that saw the eventual champions storm off the pitch late in the game. Brahim Diaz could have won the trophy for Morocco with a controversial spot-kick in the 24th minute of added time at the end of normal time as ugly scenes broke out in the stands. However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy easily saved the weak attempted “Panenka” chip by the Real Madrid winger, who was clearly distracted by the long delay that followed the penalty award.
James Harden on Friday scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle. The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams, they went to
Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah on Saturday secured his sixth Dakar Rally car title in Saudi Arabia with Luciano Benavides scraping home by two seconds to claim the motorbike title. “We’ve worked very hard since last year. I might not be showing much emotion yet, but it’s there, deep down. We are so happy to win,” al-Attiyah said at the finish. Al-Attiyah, at the wheel of a Dacia, only had to avoid a final day slip-up to top the podium after bringing his career tally of stage wins to 50 on Friday. The 55-year-old, who took clay pigeon shooting bronze at the
Tobias Harris on Monday scored 25 points as the Detroit Pistons held off the Boston Celtics to score a 104-103 victory in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference showdown. Harris was one of four Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Jalen Duren adding 18 points and point guard Cade Cunningham scoring 16 points with 14 assists. The win sees Detroit extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 31-10, 5.5 games ahead of second-placed Boston, who fell to 26-16 with the defeat. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics scoring with 32 points and almost snatched victory in the
RSS