CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Makeup week continued with the CPBL managing to fit in a game between the Uni-President Lions and the Brother Elephants at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City on Monday night, in which the Elephants prevailed 3-1 amid the recent wet weather.
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s two-run home run off Lions starter Kao Jien-san in the bottom of the first was the difference in the game as the Elephants struck early and held off several Lions scoring threats to win it.
“[Kao] left the pitch too high over the plate, so I just took a good swing at it,” Peng said after the game.
His .290 batting average may be his lowest in an 11-year career, but his on-base percentage of .414 still makes him a threat to opposing pitchers.
Southpaw starter Luis Gonzalez fanned seven through the first three frames on one-run ball and seemed well on his way to his fifth win of the season when a sudden cramp in his throwing hand forced him to leave the game after the third inning.
That meant an early run to the office for reliever Guan Da-yuan, who ably filled in for Gonzalez with three scoreless innings of one-hit ball to keep the Lions bats at bay.
Even though Gonzalez’s replacement, Yeh Ding-ren, served up a pair of walks to place the tying runs on first and second with one out in the seventh, reliever Luo Guo-hua was able to bail out the Elephants by getting the next hitter to fly out and striking out the Lions’ Pan “TAKE” Wu-hsiung to end the Lions’ scoring threat.
Lee Guan-chui and Brad Thomas tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth to preserve the victory.
Uni-President had several scoring opportunities in the game with the same number of hits [eight] as the Elephants, but failed to cash in on them as they batted a dismal 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, including seven strikeouts and two double plays.
Picking up the victory was Guan, who improved to 6-2 on the season, while the loss was charged against Kao, who dropped his second consecutive start after moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation, following several injuries to key Elephants starters.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS