A pair of homers by Chou Si-chi lit up the Tianmu sky last night as the Brother Elephants teed off against the Uni-President Lions on a slew of hits to garner a 15-5 win at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium.
It was the second time that the veteran slugger had gone deep twice in the same game, taking Lion staff ace Yuya Kamada out of the ballpark twice on a two-for-five night with a season-high five RBIs to lift the league leaders past the defending champions.
Also starring was red-hot Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, who drove in three runs by going a perfect five-for-five on the night to complement Chou’s long balls for the home team.
Taking the win was Elephants starter Lin Yu-ching, who allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits over seven innings to defeat Kamada, who lasted only 3-1/3 frames in only his fourth loss of the year as he fell to a 14-4 mark for the year.
Monkeys 16, Bulls 5
Monkeys 13, Bulls 5
The Lamigo Monkeys roughed up the Sinon Bulls by sweeping the day-night doubleheader on the road at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday to take the weekend series in Taichung.
In the day game of the day-night doubleheader, it was the Sinon Bulls who drew first blood as they jumped to a quick 5-0 lead over the first two innings against Lamigo starter Tseng Jau-hao on the strength of seven hits, including a home run by Lin Yi-chuan.
However, that was as close to victory as the Bulls got because the Primates came back by scoring at least a run from the fourth inning on for 16 unanswered runs to take the opener.
Every starter on the Lamigo lineup had at least one hit, with the heart of the order going to Kuo Yen-wen, Lin Chih-sheng and Chung Cheng-yo, who went a combined 10-for-15, with eight RBIs, to get the job done.
Lin Jia-wei picked up his first win of the season with two scoreless innings of one-hit relief to beat Sinon starter Shen Yu-jeh.
In the night game of the Taichung series, the visitors needed a five-run eighth to turn a 4-5 deficit into a 9-5 lead and went on to defeat the Bulls 13-5.
Yu Te-long’s grand slam in the eighth made all the difference in the game, as it broke a five-all tie wide open.
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
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
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