Overcoming a shaky three-run first inning, the Uni-President Lions mustered five unanswered runs the rest of the way to top the Lamigo Monkeys 5-3 at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only clinched the three-game set between the league’s top two clubs for the Lions by a 2-1 margin, more importantly it brought them to within a half-game of the top-ranked Monkeys.
Starter Dan Reichert ran into a world of trouble in the opening frame as he surrendered three quick runs on as many hits and a pair of walks despite a well executed double play by his defense to keep the Monkey offense from doing further damage.
Those were all the runs the Lions pitchers would allow as Reichert cruised through the next five innings and only twice allowed a runner to reach second base, before the his bullpen took over with three innings of shutout relief to keep the Monkeys at bay the rest of the way.
Down by three after the first, the Lions came up with three runs of their own in the third, sparked by Chen Yong-chi’s RBI double that chased Lamigo starter Hsiao Yu-chi and tied the game at 3-3.
The 3-3 tie lasted less than two innings as the Lion offense roared again in the fifth when Kuo Dai-chi connected on a two-out single that scored the go-ahead run en route to the 5-3 triumph.
Elephants 4, Bulls 3
The Brother Elephants needed two timely runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead as they held on to defeat the Sinon Bulls by the same score at the Sinjhung Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night to take the weekend series by a 2-1 margin.
Chou Si-chi reached safely on an error by the Bulls defense on a routine fly to left and advanced to third base two batters later, before taking home on a failed pick-off attempt by Bulls starter Lin Keh-chien that sailed wide to tie the game at 3-3.
The opportunistic Elephant offense would make the most of it by taking the lead on the ensuing play when Chen Wei-rue lined to left field to score the go-ahead run to make it 4-3.
That was all the Elephant bullpen needed as Guan Da-yuan pitched a scoreless seventh and loaded up the bases with two outs in the eighth, before Lee Fong-hua bailed him out with an inning-ending groundout and followed with a perfect ninth to preserve the win for Guan.
Offensively for the Elephants, rookie infielder Yang Chan-hsu’s 2 for 3 at the plate with an RBI led a lineup that was still missing the service of slugger Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min to injury.
Lin took the loss for the Bulls as he allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits over 5-1/3 innings.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite