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.
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
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
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six