Chen Chin-fong’s walk-off home run, his first of the season, broke a two-all deadlock two outs into the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the Lamigo Monkeys past the top-ranked Uni-President Lions 4-2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the second straight -extra-innings win that the Monkeys pulled off against the defending champs following Friday night’s 4-3 thriller over 10 frames to help reduce the Lions’ lead over the second-place Primates to a lone game in the standings.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long,” Chen said to a crowd of about 2,000 after the game as he received the game MVP honor from the league official.
Chen made sure the overdue homer translated directly into a win for the home team as they looked to make up some ground on the Cats.
The Monkeys jumped to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second against Lions starter Yuya Kamada on back-to-back RBI singles by Shih Chih-wei and Tseng Hao-jui.
The lead seemed more than ample for Monkeys starter Matt DeSalvo, who took a no-hitter into the seventh until Pan Wu---hsiung lined a single up the middle to lead off the inning and set up Kao Guo-ching’s game-tying two-run blast.
Each bullpen held its ground over the next two innings to force the contest into extra innings until Chen’s monstrous swing promptly ended the game a tad short of the four-hour mark.
Closer Hsu Ming-jeh picked up his second straight win in as many nights for getting the final Lion batter out in the 10th to improve to 2-0 for the year, while the loss went to his counterpart Wang Jing-ming, who served up Chen’s game-winner over 1-2/3 innings of relief duty.
Elephants 13, Bulls 1
The Brother Elephants avenged a tough loss the night before by erupting for 13 hits to humble the Sinon Bulls at the Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei last night.
Starter Lin Yu-ching had his signature split-finger fastball working to near-perfection as he allowed a lone run on seven hits, while fanning 11 and walking four to pick up the complete-game victory.
The rookie standout, who opened the season for the men in the golden uniforms, had not won since opening day despite recording three consecutive quality starts over the same span.
Offensively for the Elephants, Wang Sheng-wei and Chen -Jiang-ho’s combined 4-for-8 hitting drove in seven of their team’s runs.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
The horn sounded on Wednesday night to signal a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final, as the Florida Panthers celebrated merely by hopping over the boards and several heading over to congratulate goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. It was a subdued celebration seemingly more befitting a regular-season win for the reigning Cup champs. “I remember a few years ago, it felt like such an accomplishment from where we were at one point,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said, adding: “It’s all business and we’ve got a bigger goal in mind.” The Panthers closed out the Carolina Hurricanes in five games, with a 5-3 victory in
RSS