The Brother Elephants took an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and went on to beat the Uni-President Lions 6-4 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Sunday, taking the three-game series from the defending champs 2-1.
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s two-run homer off Lions starter Lin Cheng-fong spotted Brother starter Liao Yu-cheng a 3-0 lead and that was more than ample for the submariner as he pitched through the sixth, allowing two unearned runs on five hits to earn his second victory of the year.
Trailing 0-5 after five innings of play, the Lions offense finally capitalized on an Elephants error as Kuo Dai-chi made the most of a second chance when the Elephants failed come up with a catch in foul territory. Kuo drove an offering from Liao over the rightfield fence for a two-run shot.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TAIPEI TIMES
Lin allowed five runs on 10 hits over five frames in his first setback of the season.
BULLS 3, BEARS 1
The Sinon Bulls continued their brilliant start with a 3-1 win over the La New Bears in Taichung on Sunday to sweep a three-game set.
What many argued as the club that came away with the best deals in the supplemental draft after the dismantling of the dmedia T-Rex and the Chinatrust Whales, the new-and-improved Bulls got great mileage from Wilton Veras (formerly of the T-Rex) and rookie sensation Lin Yi-chuen, who collected a pair of hits apiece.
Picking up the big win for the Bulls was starter Yang Jien-fu, who gave up a lone run on two hits over five innings for his first win of the season, beating his counterpart Wu Si-yo. Wu allowed three runs on nine hits over seven-and-two-thirds innings in a quality start but was simply outpitched by Yang.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
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