Tseng Hao-jui’s two-out triple in the bottom of the fourth broke a 7-7 tie for the La New Bears, who went on to defeat the playoff-bound Uni-President Lions 9-7 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Sunday.
The tie-breaking run came on the back of two Lions runs in both the third and the fourth, giving the Bears a much needed morale boost and avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in front of a home crowd in their season finale.
The slugfest, which featured 16 combined runs on 27 hits, saw the visitors jump to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first on Cheng Nai-wen’s three-run homer off Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Bears answered by sending a dozen men to the plate for seven runs in the bottom of the first off Lions starter Nerio “N-Rod” Rodriguez.
After Tseng’s go-ahead triple gave the Bears an 8-7 lead, they tacked on an insurance run against the defending champs in the fifth with Tsai Tsong-yo’s opposite-field single off Rodriguez.
That was enough for Bears veteran Chang Chih-jia, who entered in the sixth and delivered four impeccable innings of relief to win his 10th game of the year.
A pair of errors by the Lions defense led to five unearned runs and left N-Rod with the loss.
BULLS 11, ELEPHANTS 5
Seven big runs in the fourth by the Sinon Bulls erased an early deficit as they topped the Brother Elephants 11-5 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Sunday to deal the slumping Elephants their fifth straight loss.
Starter Lin Keh-chien was the biggest beneficiary of the seven-run fourth as it gave the rookie a 7-3 lead, allowing manager Hsu Sheng-ming to keep him in the game long enough for his 10th win of the season despite Lin giving up back-to-back homers in the first.
Cheng Da-hong, Chen Chih-wei and Wilton Veras connected for three hits each to account for seven of the Bulls’ 11 runs.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB