The Brother Elephants improved to a league-best 4-2 mark with a 4-2 win over the Lamigo Monkeys at the Chengching Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung last night to force a tie atop the standings for first place with the Uni-President Lions.
Rookie starter Lu Shou-yu gave up an early run in the third inning on a pair of singles to the Monkeys, but quickly buckled down and retired all but two of the next dozen hitters he faced in a four-hit effort over 6-2/3 innings of work with no walks to snatch his first career victory.
Offensively for the men in the golden uniforms, the night belonged to veteran slugger Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, whose clutch double down the right-field line scored both runners and turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead for his team in the bottom of the sixth.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The Elephants tacked on a pair of runs in the seventh on the merit of back-to-back scoring singles by Chen Jiang-ho and Chen Chih-hong to claim a 4-1 advantage en route to the win.
Monkeys starter Ken Ray did not show his best stuff on the day as he surrendered four runs on nine hits over 6-1/3 frames of work to suffer his first defeat of the season. The American right-hander is now 1-1 with an ERA of 3.86.
LIONS 2, BULLS 0
The Uni-President Lions dealt the Sinon Bulls their fifth straight loss of the season by blanking the Bulls in a 2-0 shutout at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
Right-hander Yuya Kamada took a three-hit shutout bid through the seventh for the second straight start before his bullpen followed with a scoreless eighth and ninth to keep the shutout win intact for the Japanese native who improved to a league-best 2-0 for the season.
The classic pitchers’ duel saw Kamada outhurl his counterpart Lin Chi-wei, who gave up a run on four hits while fanning eight in six innings to lose the game despite pitching a quality start. The loss set Lin back to 0-2 as the Bulls remain winless at 0-5 so far this year.
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
Top seeds Alexander Zverev of Germany and American Coco Gauff on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Canadian Open after both players were pushed hard by their opponents. World No. 3 Zverev, playing in his first match since his first-round loss at Wimbledon, was far from his best, but emerged with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over Adam Walton under the lights in Toronto. Momentum shifted firmly in Zverev’s favor when he won a 52-shot rally in the first set tiebreak and he sealed the win on a double fault by the Australian in the second set. “It was a very
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
RSS