Homers lit up the Pingtung sky in the CPBL yesterday afternoon as the Uni-President Lions pounded the Brother Elephants in a 9-0 final to win their season-opener.
The Lion’s top order consisted of Yang Song-hsuen, Pan Wu-hsiung and the newly acquired bashing tandem of Chen Yong-chi (formerly with the Oakland Athletics’ minors) and Chang Tai-shan (formerly with the Sinon Bulls), who took turns in taking the Elephant pitchers deep with one blast apiece in a home-run hitting clinic.
The result was a commanding 8-0 lead through the fourth for the Lions, as they dominated the defending champs from the get-go.
It was an especially meaningful day for Chen and Chang as they greeted the new season with combined 7-for-9 hitting and four RBIs to account for nearly half of the Cats’ total run production. That silenced any doubts that had being circulating around the league over their ability to adapt to their new team.
Chang had opted to join the Lions as a player instead of taking on a player-coach role with the Bulls, at the Bulls’ request, while Chen had decided to end a six-year stint in the US minor league.
Spotted with a big lead, Lion starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen scattered five hits over seven scoreless innings, before his bullpen came up with two hitless frames to keep the shutout win intact for the staff ace.
As for the Elephants, things did not look very positive after their opening day win over the Sinon Bulls as starter Carlos Castillo lasted only three innings after serving up three homers over the same span to lose for the first time this season.
MONKEYS 11, BULLS 4
The Lamigo Monkeys kicked off the new season on a high note with a convincing 11-4 trouncing of the Sinon Bulls at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung yesterday afternoon.
Ken Ray hurled six strong innings to pick up his first win of the season, while the loss went to his counterpart, Lin Ying-jeh, who gave up five runs on nine hits in a disappointing outing.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS