Back-to-back singles by Pan “TAKE” Wu-hsiung and Kao Guo-ching scored the go-ahead runs in the top of the fifth inning as the Uni-President Lions defeated the Brother Elephants 3-1 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series by a 2-1 margin.
The Lion’s Tsai Jing-hao struck out six while walking two over seven innings of one-run ball to pocket his fourth win of the season. It was the rookie hurler’s best outing by far as he baffled the Elephants’ hitters with an assortment of pitches that kept the men in the familiar golden uniform off balance most of the way. Other than a wild pitch in the bottom of the second that allowed the runner on third to score, Tsai was well on top of his game.
“[Tsai] definitely had all his pitches working tonight because we really didn’t have many pitches to swing at,” Elephant skipper Chen Rei-chen said after the game.
His troops were held to only one run a game in their two losses to the Lions over the weekend series.
Trailing 1-0 after two innings, the Lions’ hitters quickly went to work against Elephants reliever Guan Da-yuan as Yang Song-hsuan reached first on a fielder’s choice, stole second for his 13th stolen base of the year and scored on Lin Chih-shiang’s RBI single one batter later to tie the game at 1-all.
The score remained at 1-all through the fourth, before the Cats struck against Guan in the fifth on the strength of Pan and Kao’s run-scoring singles to make it 3-1.
Those were all the runs that either team scored as the pitchers dominated from the fifth on, with the help of two defenses that turned in a combined six double plays to keep the opposing offenses at bay.
Tsai cruised through the seventh without allowing another runner to reach second, before Kao Jien-san and Lin Yueh-ping chipped in a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively to preserve the win, while the Elephants bullpen did its part to keep their team in the game.
Guan ended up being charged with the loss for allowing all three of the Lions’ runs. The rookie right-hander is now 7-4 with an ERA of 3.86.
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
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
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
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after