Scoring early and often, the MLB All-Stars teed off against Taiwan‘s national team in Game 3 of the Taiwan All-Star Series last night in a 6-2 final at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium to up their lead over Taiwan to a commanding 3-0 in the five-game set.
Other than a scoreless fourth, the All-Stars put up at least one run over the first five frames, starting off with a two-run first that saw the visitors string together two singles and a double off Taiwan starter Cheng Kai-wen to take a 2-0 lead.
Emilio Bonifacio’s (Florida Marlins) two-out single following a double by Drew Butera (Minnesota Twins) scored the All-Stars’ third run of the game in the top of the second, before the hosts finally got a run back off Major League starter Felipe Paulino of the Kansas City Royals on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Kuo Fu-lin to make it 3-1 after singles by Yang Kuan-wei and Lan Yin-lun and a walk drawn by Lin Wang-wei earlier in the inning.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
The 3-1 lead lasted less than an inning as the visitors added to their advantage with a solo blast from Michael Morse of the Washington Nationals off Cheng in the top of the third, before teammates Ryan Roberts and Logan Morrison connected on a run-scoring single and double respectively in the fifth to blow it open to 6-1.
Neither team scored in the next two innings against the stellar relief pitching of Collin Balester (Nationals) and Jose Veras (Pittsburgh Pirates) for the All-Stars and Kuo Chun-lin of Taiwan.
Trailing by five, Taiwan managed to plate their second run of the contest in the eighth when Chen Chun-hsiu belted a two-out single off Phil Coke of the Detroit Tigers and scored all the way from first on a double by Wang Chun-chieh on the ensuing play to make it 6-2.
That was as close as Taiwan got even though singles by Chen Wei-chih and Lin Chih-hsien off All-Stars reliever Mark Melancon of the Houston Astros suddenly brought the tying run on deck with one out in the ninth. Melacom worked out of the jam by retiring the final two batters he faced to strand two to end the game.
Balester was credited with the win for his 1-2/3 innings of one-hit relief, while Cheng took the loss for the hosts. He allowed four runs on seven hits and fanned seven in the four innings he pitched.
The two teams will move to Greater Kaohsiung for Game 4 at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium this afternoon with the opening pitch scheduled for 2pm. Ni Fu-te will get the call from skipper Chen Wei-chen for Taiwan to take on Game 1 winner Jeremy Guthrie of the Baltimore Orioles.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set