Chang “OEO” Tai-shan homered for the 11th time this year and Yuya Kamada overcame a shaky two-run first with six innings of shutout ball through the seventh as the Uni-President Lions went on to defeat the Brother Elephants in a 7-2 final at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night to clinch the weekend series.
It marked the 15th straight season (16 overall) that the future hall-of-famer has picked up double-digit homers over an impressive 17-year career, giving him 266 long balls and counting, which is more than 100 more than the next hitter in line — Lin Chih-sheng of the Monkeys.
As for Kamada, the veteran righty from the land of the samurais was his usual self, despite serving up a pair of runs in an uncharacteristic three-hit first, as he cruised through the seventh with only two more hits allowed to give the Lions offense plenty of chances to get back into the game.
He was credited with his league-best 14th win of the year in another quality start.
The Elephants wasted little time getting on the board, with Chang Cheng-wei leading off the game with a clean single to left and scoring three batters later on an RBI single by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min off Kamada.
The Brothers would score again in the same inning to spot starter Lin Yu-ching a 2-0 advantage which lasted less than two innings, as the Lions answered with Chang Tai-shan’s solo blast in the second to half the deficit and skidded ahead for good with a three-run third on the strength of three singles and a double.
The 4-2 lead for the Cats would remain through the sixth with neither offense able to score again, until the Lions came up big against Elephants reliever Guan Da-yuan in a three-run seventh to put the game away.
Bulls, Monkeys postponed
The match between the Sinon Bulls and the Lamigo Monkeys at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium was called off because of rainy weather.
That might have been the only thing that could stop the free-swinging Monkeys, who had gone 3-0 in this week’s play with an amazing 14.3 runs per game scoring average.
New Mark
Friday night’s contest against the Bulls saw the Primates set a new mark in single-game scoring, with 24 runs on the night in a 24-5 slaughter of the Bulls.
Chen Chin-fong went deep twice against the Sinon pitching to record his ninth career multi-homer outing, while four other Monkey hitters followed suit.
The four two-run home runs that the Monkeys blasted, in what ended up being an 11-run seventh, also set a new high for most two-run shots in an inning as the Monkeys hitters took turns teeing off against the Bulls pitching.
Skipper Liu Rong-hua went so deep into his pitching staff in an effort to stop the Lamigo hitters that even outfielder Yu Hsien-ming was called to the mound in the ninth to face the final two Monkeys hitters.
Yu was the eighth hurler that Liu sent in on a night the Monkeys pounded the ball so hard and so far that it made no difference who was pitching.
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