Both CPBL games on Friday night were close affairs, with the Sinon Bulls holding off a tenacious dmedia T-Rex rally to escape with a 9-8 win in Hsinchu and the Chinatrust Whales edging past the Brother Elephants 7-6 in Sinjhuang.
Chen Chih-wei's grand slam off T-Rex starter Lin Jing-min capped a five-run first for the Bulls before the T-Rex got three runs back with a run in the second on Lin "Wild Hog" Hong-yuan's RBI-single and two runs in the third to make it 5-3.
Three-straight base hits by the Bulls in the bottom of the third produced their sixth run of the game, before Chen made it 8-3 with an opposite-field double for his fifth and sixth runs of the game.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Bulls tacked on a run later in the inning to lead 9-3 before the T-Rex rallied in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs that cut the deficit to 9-5.
But although the Bulls sent top closer Kuo Yong-chih to the mound at the start of the ninth to secure what should have been an easy victory, dmedia mustered one final offensive.
Chou Si-chi drew a leadoff walk off Kuo, Deng Shih-yang tattooed a pitch from him on the ensuing at-bat for a two-run shot that brought the visitors to within a deuce and Chen Tsung-hong quickly followed with another run on an RBI-groundout off the Bulls' Lin Chi-wei to make it a one-run game at 9-8.
That was as close as the T-Rex got though, as Lin regrouped and recorded the final two outs of the game to preserve the win.
Sinon starter Yang Jien-fun was credited with the win for allowing five runs (three earned) on nine hits over five-and-two-third innings of work, despite the late-game drama that nearly took the win away from him.
Lin Jing-min was tagged with the loss for allowing all nine of the Bulls' runs over the first three innings, even though only three of them were earned.
Whales 7, Elephants 6
The Chinatrust Whales remain undefeated after holding off a fierce Brother Elephants comeback to win 7-6 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday.
It is the first time that the Whales have begun a season with three-straight wins. Their potent offense has averaged six runs per game thanks to stellar outings from infielders Chen Jia-hong and Kang Tseh-wei (with eight total hits and four RBIs between them).
Friday night's contest saw the Whales striking first in the bottom of the first, when Lin Yong-kuen led off the game with a clean double and scored on Kang's RBI single up the middle off Elephants starter Kobayashi Ryokan of Japan to give the Whales an early 1-0 lead.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Elephants answered with a run of their own on Chen Rei-chang's solo homer in the top of the second to tie the game up.
The Whales struck for three more runs over the next two frames to make it 4-1, before the Elephants forced the third tie of the game with a three-run fourth on the strength of a run-scoring double by Huang Cheng-wei, a wild pitch by Whales starter Chu Wei-ming and a sacrifice-fly by Chen Rei-cheng.
The Whales enjoyed a three-run fifth on three consecutive base hits that chased Kobayashi at 7-4, before a resilient Elephants rang up a run each in the sixth and seventh to make it a one-run game.
That was as close as the Elephants got.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier