A pair of runs in the eighth inning by the Uni-President Lions turned a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 lead as they held on to defeat the Brother Elephants at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu yesterday afternoon to close out an otherwise wet weekend with a win.
Trailing by a run heading into the top of the eighth, the Cats led off the inning with back-to-back singles off Elephants reliever Luis Gonzalez, before Pan “TAKE” Wu-hsiung beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt at first for an infield single to load the bases.
That set up Kao Guo-ching’s bases-loaded walk to tie the game at 2-2 and, with the bases still juiced, that paved the way for Chang “OEO” Tai-shan’s sacrifice fly that knocked in the go-ahead run.
Even though Gonzalez got out of the jam without giving up any more runs, the damage was done as the Lions looked to Kao Jien-san and Lin Yueh-ping to toss a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively to preserve the victory for Yuya Kamada, who became the league’s first six-game winner after pitching a perfect seventh in relief of Lee Wei-hua.
Taking the loss was Gonzalez, who tossed a perfect seventh in relief of starter Lin Yu-ching, before surrendering the game-turning runs in the eighth to blow his first save opportunity of the year.
Monkeys 2, Bulls 1
Lin Chih-sheng homered in his first at-bat to give the Lamigo Monkeys a quick 2-0 lead in the opening frame as they held on to top the Sinon Bulls 2-1 on the road at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
It was only the second time that the veteran slugger had gone deep for his team in what many would consider a slow start, but it was just enough to lift the Primates past their foes in an important road win that kept them in stride with the top-ranked Lions as they nipped a two-game slide with the narrow win to conclude the weekend’s play.
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