Chen Guan-ren’s two-run triple capped a four-run rally in the bottom of the eighth as the Brother Elephants overcame a late-game deficit to top the league-leading La New Bears 5-2 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday evening and extend their winning streak to four straight.
Trailing 1-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Chen Rei-chang quickly tied things up at 2-all with a pinch-hit solo home run off Bears starter Chang Chih-jia before Chen gua-ren’s rare triple put the Elephants ahead for good.
Thanks to the late-game rally, Elephants starter Kobayashi Ryokan was awarded the win for going the distance in his third complete-game outing of the season. He allowed a pair of runs on seven hits, including a solo shot to the Bears’ Huang “EZ” Long-yi in the top of the third.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Picking up his third loss of the year was Bears reliever Tsai Ying-fong, who brought fuel to the fire by allowing back-to-back singles in relief of Chang before serving up two-run triple by Chen Guan-ren in a sub-par performance.
T-REX 1, WHALES 0
Cory Bailey tossed a one-hit gem over nine strong innings in his best outing of the year thus far to lead the dmedia T-Rex past the Chinatrust Whales in a 1-0 shutout at the Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The win snapped a four-game losing skid for the US hurler, who started off his second stint in Taiwan by winning his first five starts before hitting a mid-season slump.
It also ended a three-game losing streak for an inconsistent dmedia squad, whose owner, Shih Chien-hsin, had made claims of game-fixing in the league on Thursday, setting off a wave of rage and heated debates around the league.
As for the game in Chiayi, it was Jose Leon’s solo shot over the middle off Whales lefty Nee Fu-deh in the top of the fourth that broke a scoreless tie which ended up being the game-winner for dmedia.
The loss by Nee was his eighth of the year, even though his reasonable ERA of 3.79 is among the top 12 in the league as he fell to a miserable 4-8 mark.
ELEPHANTS 8, BULLS 7, 12 INNINGS
Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th made the difference in the game as the Elephants scored the final four runs to top the Sinon Bulls 8-7 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Thursday night.
The seesaw battle that featured four lead-changes saw the Elephants jumped ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the third before the Bulls answered with two runs of their own to knot things up at 2-2.
After the Elephants reclaimed a 4-2 advantage in the bottom of the fourth, it would be the Bulls who struck for five runs over the seventh and eighth to make it 7-4 before an all-out rally by the Elephants in the bottom of the eighth that would send the game into extra-innings, setting the stage for the Golden Warrior’s game-winning blast.
“To win it in such dramatic fashion is just unbelievable,” an overjoyed Chen Chih-yuan said after the game.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB