Chang Chih-chiang pitched seven brilliant innings of shutout ball to lead the President Lions past the dmedia T-Rex 2-1 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Sunday to salvage a one-game series-split.
The emerging right-hander made the most of his first career start against the T-Rex by overcoming a shaky first in which he worked out of a bases-loaded with no-outs jam by striking out the side before settling in to dominate the next six innings en route to his fifth win of the year.
Showing off his potent bat by going 2-for-4 with what ended up being the game-winning RBI was Yang Seng who was the lone Lions hitter with a multi-hit night against the T-Rex’s previously undefeated Cory Bailey to help the home side avoid an embarrassing sweep.
The highly anticipated pitchers’ duel lived up to its hype as Chang held the dmedia offense to five scattered hits over seven scoreless innings while Bailey allowed a pair of runs (only one earned) through the sixth before turning the game to his bullpen.
It was a wild pitch by the US veteran in the bottom of the first that led to a poor throw which scored the runner all the way from second to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead.
The Lions made it 2-0 two innings later on Yang Seng’s two-out single with man on second before fending off a late-game scare by the T-Rex that saw Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien crush a solo blast to bring his team to within one.
The win by the Lions cut their magic number for clinching the first-half title to three as they head into the new month with an auspicious start.
The loss by T-Rex dropped the dinosaurs all the way to No. 5 in the latest standings with a handful of games remaining in the first half.
Elephants 5, Bulls 2
The red-hot Brother Elephants continued their recent success by claiming their fourth straight win in a 5-2 decision against the Sinon Bulls at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Sunday evening.
The win not only helped the Elephants sweep their second series in a row, but also put them in a solid third place in the standings behind the Lions and the La New Bears.
Chen Guan-ren’s two-run single through the middle capped a four-run third that broke a scoreless affair between the two clubs.
The Elephants tacked on their fifth run of the contest two innings later on an RBI-single by Chen again for a comfortable 5-0 lead.
Even though the Bulls put two runs on the board in the eighth courtesy of Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan’s two-run single to make the final score somewhat respectable, the outcome of the game was never in doubt as the Elephants held on for the win.
Picking up his third win of the year with seven shutout innings of work on eight hits was starter Danny Core.
He beat his counterpart Jose Espinal of the Bulls in the matchup between the two foreign hurlers.
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