Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan hit his team-best seventh homer of the season and Jeffrey Farnsworth pitched 5-1/3 innings of shutout ball as the Sinon Bulls blanked the dmedia T-Rex 3-0 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Sunday night.
The win not only gave Farnsworth his first victory since coming to Taiwan earlier this month, but also helped the Bulls sweep the two-game series against the T-Rex to remain a game ahead of the third-place President Lions in a tight race behind the league-leading La New Bears.
“This one was a lot of fun for us,” Chang said after the game, referring to his second home run in a week, a solo blast to left that put his team ahead 2-0 in the top of the sixth.
Failure to come up with timely hits ultimately cost the T-Rex the game as they missed out on two golden scoring opportunities in the sixth and seventh, leaving both two-on-with-one-out scoring chances empty-handed in a tough loss that dropped them to a miserable 4-12 mark, dead last in the league standings.
LIONS 9, BEARS 3
The President Lions also swept their two-game set against the top-ranked La New Bears on Sunday with an impressive 9-3 road win at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium to close out the week with three straight wins.
Louis Pote improved to 11-3 for the year with the win, tossing seven solid innings of one-run ball on a half-dozen hits. It was the 10th quality start in 15 chances for the American righty, who leads his team in total victories.
Doing damage with his bat for the Lions was veteran slugger Chen Lien-hong, who crushed an offering from Bears reliever Tsai Ying-fong to deep-center in the top of the fifth for a three-run blast.
Also starring for the Lions were Yang Seng and Kao Guo-ching, who belted a pair of base hits apiece with three RBIs to account for the bulk of the Lions’ run production.
What had been a closely fought 1-1 tie through the fourth between Pote and his counterpart Hsu Wen-hsiung turned into a Lions rout as they sent a dozen men to the plate in a seven-run fifth that chased Hsu in his own backyard, dealing the Bears starter his third loss of the year.
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
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
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