After falling behind 3-2 in the series after a contentious Game 5 marked by controversy and theatrics, the Brother Elephants evened up the CPBL Taiwan Series at three games apiece yesterday, defeating the Uni-President Lions 5-0 and forcing a deciding Game 7 tonight in Tainan.
Japanese starting pitcher Kobayashi Ryokan tossed six stellar innings, while Matthew Perisho picked up the win in relief with two scoreless frames for the Elephants. Third-baseman Chen Rui-zhen drove in the game-winner with a two-run double that sparked a five-run eighth inning.
The game started as a tense pitching duel between Ryokan and Lions starting pitcher Giancarlo Alvarado and remained scoreless through seven innings.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The crafty Ryokan pitched an exceptional game, moving the ball effectively around the strike zone with a blend of fastballs and off-speed pitches. He struck out seven and walked just one batter over six scoreless innings, confounding a line-up of pressing Lions hitters.
The Lions’ Alvarado pitched seven impressive shutout innings of his own, to match Ryokan and Perisho.
Despite throwing more than 110 pitches through seven innings and appearing fatigued, Alvarado was left in the game by manager Liu Wen-sheng to start the eighth inning.
The top of the eighth would prove fatal for the defending champions when, after singling to start the inning, the Elephants’ Wang Seng-wei advanced all the way to third base on Alvarado’s errant pickoff throw with no outs. After a visibly limping Peng Chen-ming was intentionally walked with one out, Zhen broke the game’s scoring drought with a two-run double off reliever Kao Jian-san, driving in Wang Sen-wei and Peng’s pinch runner, Wang Yong-shi.
First baseman Wang Jin-yong then blew the game open with a decisive two-run blast to center field, putting the game out of reach for the Lions. Huang Zheng-wei added an insurance run with a double, driving in catcher Cheng Rui-chang.
The victory ensured a deciding seventh game tonight. Game 4 MVP Luther Hackman will start for the Lions, while Game 3 MVP Mai Chia-rui will start for the Elephants.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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