A stellar effort by the Brother Elephants bullpen helped protect a slim lead as they held off a late-game rally to defeat the Sinon Bulls 4-3 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Sunday evening.
With a 4-3 lead and the Bulls hitters rallying for more, Elephants reliever Wang Jing-li was able to induce an inning-ending pop-out with runners at the corners in the sixth. He then retired the side in order in the seventh before Matt Perisho and Mai Jia-rei combined for a scoreless eighth and ninth to preserve the win for starter Liao “the Golden Submarine” Yu-cheng.
The Elephants’ Chen “the Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan and Wang Jin-yong both had RBIs to cap a three-run fourth for a 4-1 lead.
The Bulls attempted a comeback, but failure to come up with timely hits ultimately cost them as they batted a disappointing 2-for-11 with runners in scoring positions.
Hsieh Jia-shien’s leadoff double off Perisho in the top of the eighth was wasted as the next three Sinon hitters came up empty against the American lefty, while Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan’s game-ending groundout to short with runners on first and second added another pair of stranded runners — for a total of nine for the Bulls.
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
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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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