Kobayashi Ryokan pitched his best game since joining the Brother Elephants at the start of this season by going the distance in an impressive 6-0 shutout win over the Sinon Bulls at Douliou on Friday to record his first win in Taiwan.
The longtime minor league prospect of Japan’s Chunichi Dragons and the Lotte Marines who signed with the Elephant during the offseason for chance to star in Taiwan finally delivered what the Elephants had been looking for from him in a two-hit gem to silence his critics. He also gave an overworked Brother bullpen some much needed rest as they played their fourth game in five days.
A 6-0 lead was more than ample for Kobayashi as he shut down the Bulls offense by tossing a no-hit ball from the fifth inning on to pick up the impressive win.
Lions 13, T-Rex 4
Scoring early and often, the President Lions mowed over the dmedia T-Rex by racking up eleven runs over the first four innings en route to a 13-4 win in Tainan on Friday night.
The home cats wasted little time getting to T-Rex starter Michael Christopher with a first-inning run off the US right-hander before piling on the runs over the next three innings with two in the second, five in the third and three more in the fourth to blow the game wide open.
Lions outfielder Kuo Dai-chi ended his career-night by going 3-for-4 with four RBIs to lead a tenacious attack that ripped 13 hits off four different dmedia pitchers.
Last season’s Rookie-of-the-Year winner Pan Wu-hsiung of the Lions also exploded for three hits on the night with a pair of RBIs to come out of a recent slump that had kept his average to a .268.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.