Cheng Jau-han’s walk-off single with a runner on second scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Sinon Bulls broke a scoreless tie with the only run in the contest to win it by a 1-0 margin against the La New Bears at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night.
It was the second time that the veteran infielder has won a game in such dramatic fashion for the Bulls this year as he lined an offering from reliever Geng Bo-hsuan to shallow-right with the game on the line to knock home the game-winner.
“This is the kind of game that will make us tougher with the season winding down,” Cheng said after the game, nearly stealing the show from fellow slugger Chang Tai-shan, who belted a single to left-center in the bottom of the seventh off La New starter Ken Ray for his record-breaking 1,583rd career bases hit.
Chang was properly honored after the game for his tremendous achievement as he received a sign with a large “1,583” on it from the holder of the previous record, former Sinon great and current third-base coach Huang Chung-yi.
It was only fitting that the Bulls celebrated Chang’s career milestone with a dramatic triumph.
Both starters held their ground against an anxious opposing lineup that looked to break the ice early in the game with the Bears’ Ray and Sinon’s Lin Ying-jeh pitching seven innings of shutout ball on four and six hits.
Neither wound up with a decision as the game was not decided until long after both hurlers had left.
Picking up his sixth win of the year was reliever Shen Yu-jeh, who pitched two innings of scoreless relief despite allowing a pair of singles to beat his counterpart Geng, who gave up a lead-off single in the bottom of the ninth to set up Cheng’s game-winner.
ELEPHANTS 7, LIONS 3
The Brother Elephants made it two in a row with a convincing 7-3 victory over the Uni-President Lions at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang last night to clinch the weekend series in northern Taiwan against the defending champs by a 2-1 margin.
Jim Magrane received plenty of run support to back up his seven-and-two-third innings of solid play, allowing three runs on five hits in his 11th quality start to beat Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen for his ninth win of the year.
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s RBI single in the bottom of the opening frame got things moving in the right direction for the Elephants before they added to their 1-0 lead by two three innings later, courtesy of Wang Sheng-wei’s one-run single and a fielding error by the Lions third baseman.
The Elephants put up another run each in the fifth and the sixth that made it 5-0 before the Lions finally got on the board in the top of the seventh with a run off Magrane.
They managed to score two more in the eighth with Liu Fu-hao’s two-run double, but the Elephants sent closer Ryan Cullen to record the last four outs of the game for his league-leading 23rd save of the season.
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.
RSS