Lin Cuen-sheng’s solo blast off Orlando Roman in the bottom of the seventh broke a 2-all tie as the Sinon Bulls held on to top the Brother Elephants 4-3 in a thrilling game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the first home run for the budding rookie catcher in what many expect to be a promising career, providing a huge morale boost for the last-placed Bulls (12-33-2) as they look to salvage a disappointing first half of the season.
Trailing 2-0 after two innings of play, the Elephants held the Sinon offense scoreless for the next four innings to keep it a close game as Roman retired all but one Sinon batter over the span. The Elephants hitters finally awoke as they plated a pair in the top of the seventh, courtesy of an RBI ground out by Chang Cheng-hao and a two-out single by Chen Jiang-ho that drove in the tying run to make it 2-2.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
That was as close as they got as the Bulls returned the favor in the bottom of the inning with Lin’s tiebreaking solo shot, before they added an insurance run in a hitless eighth as Cheng Da-hong drew a leadoff walk off Elephants reliever Kuo Jien-yu, stole second and then reached third on a ground out, before finally scoring on a wild pitch by Kuo to make it 4-2.
Cheng’s run proved crucial as the Elephants rallied for a run in the top of the ninth and loaded the bases against Shen Yu-jeh, before the lefty closer induced a lazy fly to left to set up Cheng’s game-ending catch in foul territory for the win.
“This was a big win for us because we haven’t been able to win the close ones very often this year,” Sinon skipper Liu Rong-hua said after the game.
His Bulls had been 3-12 in games that were decided by two runs or fewer prior to last night’s contest.
Reliever Tsai Ming-jin was credited with his second win of the year for his two innings of one-run relief, while the loss was charged to Roman, who allowed three runs on six hits over seven solid innings in a quality start, only to drop to a 6-3 mark for the season.
LIONS 2, MONKEYS 0
Dan Reichert tossed eight solid innings of shutout ball to lead the Uni-President Lions past the Lamigo Monkeys at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium last night, upping the top-ranked Lions’ lead over the Monkeys to a season-high three games.
The highly anticipated pitchers’ duel between Reichert and his counterpart Steve Hammond lived up to its billing with neither offense able to produce any runs through the fourth until a fielding error by Monkeys outfielder Chung Cheng-yo led to a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth that ended up making all the difference.
Down by two runs, the Monkeys attempted a comeback in the final two frames as Chung tried to redeem himself with a two-out double off Reichert in the eighth and Tsai Jien-wei doing the same against Lions closer Lin Yueh-ping in the ninth.
Neither Chung nor Tsai managed to cross the plate as the Monkeys came up empty on both occasions on a night where the Monkeys batted a futile 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position in a losing effort.
Reichert picked up the win, improving to 7-1 for the season.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS