Wang Jin-yong’s infield single with the bases loaded capped a two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth as the Brother Elephants turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 win over the Chinatrust Whales at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
Trailing 0-1 for most of the game, the men in the golden uniform finally came to life in the eighth by taking first on a hit batsman that chased Whales starter Kao Min-jing before tying the game on a sacrifice-fly by Chen Chih-yuan and loading up the bases with two outs to set up Wang’s game-turning hit.
A fielding error by the Elephants shortstop, coupled with a wild pitch by starter Kobayashi Ryokan gave the marine creatures an early 1-0 lead in the opening frame.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
That would be the only run that either club scored for the next seven innings in the classic pitchers’ duel between Kao and Kobayashi that saw Kao take a two-hit shutout into the eighth and Kobayashi allowing an unearned run in a five-hitter through the seventh before the Elephants struck for two in the eighth to win the game.
The Whales outhit the Elephants 6-3, but failed to produce any runs as they batted a futile 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position to lose the heartbreaker.
Picking up the surprising win was Elephants reliever Mai Jia-rei, who pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth on a hit and two strikeouts to even his season mark at 2-2, while his counterpart Huang Hong-ren was tagged with the loss for loading up the bags in the eighth on a hit batsman and two walks to set the stage for Wang’s game-winning hit.
T-Rex 12, Bulls 3
An eight-run sixth by the dmedia T-Rex broke a 3-3 tie wide open and the T-Rex went on to defeat the Sinon Bulls 12-3 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday, giving manager Lin Kuen-wei a big win in his managerial debut.
Following the coaching shuffle that had former manager Liu Jia-chi swapping roles with Lin, the former pitching coach, to finish out the season, the T-Rex were eager to show what they could do for the rookie skipper.
And the eight-run sixth could not have come at a better time for them as they tallied up a half-dozen singles and four walks against three different Sinon hurlers to humble the Bulls.
After the T-Rex took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI-single by Chen Keh-fan, the Bulls answered with three runs of their own in the top of the fifth to claim a 3-1 advantage.
Wang Chuan-jia’s rare triple that scored the T-Rex’s second run of the game quickly brought hope to the hosts before they tied the game up two batters later on a blooper single by Napoleon Calzado to set the table for the big inning in the sixth.
T-Rex starter Cory Bailey was credited with his second win of the season for pitching six solid innings, allowing three runs on 10 hits to beat game-loser Tsai Ming-jin of the Bulls, who entered in the sixth and managed to get only one out before serving up a pair of singles to plant the losing seed for his team.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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