Luther Hackman pitched seven impeccable innings of two-hit ball and Liu Fu-hao drove in the lone run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth as the Uni-President Lions blanked the dmedia T-Rex 1-0 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was the second straight shutout win that Hackman had started in the past seven days as the converted starter out of the Lions bullpen scattered two singles while fanning eight and walking one to help lead his club to a critical win.
None of the dmedia hitters made it to second base the entire game, making it virtually impossible to back up a rare solid outing from its pitching, championed by starter Chang Hsien-chih, who played an impressive seven frames of one-run ball in a three-hit gem.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The win kept the Lions in pace with the league-leading La New Bears, who picked up a narrow 2-1 win over the Chinatrust Whales in Kaohsiung the same night to maintain a slim half-game cushion over the Lions in the standings.
BEARS 2, WHALES 1
Timely hitting by the La New Bears, coupled with an invisible error by the Whales defense late in the game, resulted in the Bears’ victory at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday evening.
A poor throw by Whales shortstop Wang Yi-min on a would-be inning-ending double play gave the Bears the break they needed as they scored what ended up being the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to break up a 1-all tie.
The Whales had their final shot at forcing the game into extra-innings with two hard-hit liners in the top of the ninth, but they both seemed to have a nose for a Bears glove as the La New defense came up big with two clutch catches to end the Whales rally.
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