Jose Leon’s walk-off home run broke a 1-1 gridlock in the bottom of the ninth at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Thursday evening, edging the dmedia T-Rex past the Chinatrust Whales 2-1 to snap a three-game losing skid.
The Puerto Rican slugger, who spent three seasons in the Majors with the Baltimore Orioles (2002 to 2004) and was brought in by the T-Rex in late July to give their ailing offense a big boost, showed exceptional power by driving a pitch from Whales starter Nee Fu-deh over the left-center wall to clinch the victory.
Leon also scored dmedia’s only other run in the game by grinding out a single in the fourth and reaching home two hits later on Huang Shih-hao’s blooper up the middle.
PHOTO: CHANG TSUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
T-Rex reliever Yen Chih-chung was credited with the win for his two innings of hitless relief to beat Nee, who dropped his 12th of the year despite pitching his third complete game of the season.
LIONS 8, ELEPHANTS 3
The Uni-President Lions won their fourth in a row by topping the Brother Elephants 8-3 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Thursday night to pull within a half-game of the league-leading La New Bears.
The win also cut the Lions’ magic number to “2,” meaning that either two more wins by them or two more losses by the Bears over the final two weeks of regular-season play will clinch a first-round bye for them in the upcoming postseason.
Taking the mound for the home cats in his first game of the season was newcomer Giancarlo Alvarado of Puerto Rico, who threw six strong innings of two-run ball on five hits for his first win.
The five runs that Alvarado was spotted by his offense over the first two innings, highlighted by Pan Wu-hsiung’s three-run blast off Elephants starter Tseng Jia-min in the bottom of the second, also made things a lot easier on the veteran righty as he looks to provide another reliable arm to solidify the Lions starting rotation.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Connelly Early on Tuesday struck out 11 in five shutout innings to match a franchise record during his MLB debut against the Oakland Athletics. “Pretty sick performance,” teammate Romy Gonzalez said. “It was fun to watch.” The only other Red Sox starter to rack up 11 strikeouts in his first career game was Don Aase versus the Milwaukee Brewers on July 26, 1977. “It was amazing, just to go out there and have that first opportunity,” Early said after getting the win in a 6-0 victory. “A long day of travel yesterday and just getting to the field, seeing
Mikel Merino on Sunday scored a hat-trick as a majestic Spain thumped Turkey 6-0 away in World Cup qualifying, while a brilliant Florian Wirtz free-kick helped Germany beat Northern Ireland 3-1 to get their bid up and running. European champions Spain were in unstoppable form in the central Turkish city of Konya, claiming their second biggest-ever away win in World Cup qualifying as Arsenal midfielder Merino scored his first professional hat-trick. Barcelona playmaker Pedri Gonzalez opened the scoring inside six minutes and later completed the scoring, with Ferran Torres netting the visitors’ other goal. The quality of Merino’s strikes was remarkable, with his
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
SWEDEN BEATEN: Goals in the first half by Elvis Rexhbecaj and Vedat Muriqi were enough to give Kosovo their second-ever win in World Cup qualifying Sandro Tonali’s last-gasp winner on Monday edged Italy to a 5-4 victory over Israel in FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying, while Kosovo beat Sweden despite Alexander Isak making his first appearance of the season. After collapsing from leading 4-2 in the final two minutes to drawing 4-4, Tonali’s 91st-minute strike in the Hungarian city of Debrecen sent Italy above Israel and into the playoff spot in Group I. New coach Gennaro Gattuso’s side trail leaders Norway by three points and still have a chance of taking first place and the group’s sole direct qualifying spot as they seek to avoid missing out
RSS