AMERICAN LEAGUE
Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-yin is set to make his debut for the Baltimore Orioles as the fifth starter against the New York Yankees on Wednesday at home, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said yesterday.
Showalter announced the season’s starting rotation yesterday after an exhibition match, and said the 26-year-old left-hander would be the Orioles’ fifth starter after Jake Arrieta, Jason Hammel, Tommy Hunter and Brian Matusz. The announcement ended up being different from an earlier prediction by the Baltimore Sun, which said Chen was likely to be the second starter and would debut against the Minnesota Twins in a Major League Baseball (MLB) matchup on Sunday.
However, the Kaohsiung native said in a recent interview that the starting order did not really matter to him since his goal was to earn a spot in the rotation. Chen went 2-2 with a 3.60 earned-run average over 20 innings in five spring starts this year, yielding 19 hits and four walks and striking out nine.
The Orioles’ home opener will take place tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s right-handed pitcher Wang Chien-ming of the Washington Nationals is likely to return to the team later this month from a hamstring strain, manager Davey Johnson told the US media on Wednesday.
If Wang can return as scheduled, he might take on Chen next month or in June in interleague play between the Nationals and the Orioles for the first time in an MLB game.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB