A solo homer by Chen Chin-fong broke a 2-all gridlock in the bottom of the sixth and the La New Bears went on to double up on the Brother Elephants 4-2 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Saturday night.
A sellout crowd of nearly 20,000 packed the ballpark to witness the showdown between two former Major Leaguers — Elephants fireballer Tsao Chin-hui and the Bears’ Chen — got their money’s worth.
Tsao struck out Chen in the fourth before the slugger exacted his revenge two innings later by taking Tsao deep for what turned out to the game-winner.
PHOTO:CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Shih Chih-wei also homered off Tsao in the game, a solo blast later in the sixth that gave the Bears an insurance run.
Bears starter Wu Si-yo benefited from the pair of long balls as he fell behind 0-2 in the opening frame, but quickly found his groove by tossing shutout ball over the next five innings.
The Bears bullpen then took over and one-hit the Elephants over the final three innings to preserve Wu’s second win of the season.
Wu, who spent two seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s NPB, definitely had the upper hand on the night against Tsao, who served up four runs on seven hits over six innings.
The win gave the Bears sole possession of the lead in the latest standings, with the Lions and Sinon Bulls trailing by a game in a tie for second place.
BULLS 5, LIONS 3
Shen Yu-jeh came out of the bullpen with minimal warning to relieve struggling starter Chiang Jien-min and pitch five scoreless innings of two-hit ball to lead the Sinon Bulls past the Uni-President Lions 5-3 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday.
The loss not only cost the Lions the top spot in the standings, but also nipped a 10-game streak for starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen, who had not lost to the Bulls since Aug. 26, 2006.
Chang Jien-ming and Lin Yi-chuan did damage at the plate for the Bulls by going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs apiece. The pair accounted for four of their team’s five runs.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
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