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.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
Japanese fans soaked up the atmosphere on yesterday’s opening day of the world athletics championships in Tokyo, four years after being shut out of the same stadium for the pandemic-troubled Olympics. The Tokyo Games, postponed a year until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, took place amid the ghostly backdrop of empty stands, with fans barred to prevent the spread of infection. Japanese spectators were determined to make up for lost time as the world championships opened on a cloudy, muggy morning, with fans arriving before the race walk began at 7:30am. Hajime Kondo, a 41-year-old office worker from nearby Chiba, came to