Homers by Lin Chih-sheng and Lin Hung-yu led the way for the Lamigo Monkeys as they humbled the Uni-President Lions in a 4-1 road victory to take the all-important opener in this year’s Taiwan Series at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
The Primates’ bashing tandem, who many consider the deadliest home run threats in the league, lived up to their billing.
The former lit up the Tainan sky with a towering shot to left that doubled the visitors’ lead to 2-0 in the third, while the latter ended any hope for Lions’ supporters with his two-run blast in the ninth that sealed the deal for his team.
“The pitches that I hit all happened to come into the part of the strike zone that allowed me to fully extend the bat,” Lin Chih-sheng explained after the game.
He was the unanimous choice for the game MVP honor after going 3-for-4 with two of his hits going for extra bases.
Also starring was Monkey starter Mike Loree Jr who outpitched fellow countryman Jon Leicester in an all-American showdown with 7-1/3 innings of one-run ball on three hits to keep a potent Lions offense at bay.
“[Loree] really kept our hitters out of the game,” a disappointed Lions skipper Terushi Nakashima said in the postgame press conference.
The American righty pitched shutout ball through the fifth before surrendering a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Pan Wu-hsiung following a catchable fly by the Lions’ Liu Fu-hao to deep-center.
This was misjudged by Lamigo centerfielder Chan Chih-yao, but was ruled a double nonetheless to put the runner on.
The Monkeys took the home crowd right out of the game with a run in the opening inning on three quick hits off Leicester.
Even though it was a moral victory for the Lions starter, as he kept the damage to a minimum, the quick run gave the Monkeys players the necessary boost they needed in a hostile Tainan Stadium.
Despite the two early runs, Leicester held his ground through the eighth by retiring all but one of the hitters he faced from the fourth inning on.
However, the Lions hitters did not reward their starter with their usual run support, leaving Leicester nothing but the loss to show for an otherwise solid outing.
Credited with his first postseason win in Taiwan was Loree Jr who will likely get the call again in Game 4 on Wednesday.
The two teams will do battle once more in Game 2 at the Kaohsiung Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium this afternoon, where veteran righty Tseng Jau-hao will take on the Lions’ Eulogio de La Cruz.
The opening pitch is scheduled for 5:05pm as the Monkeys look forward to a big showing from their Kaohsiung fans in a stadium they called home for nearly a decade before moving north to Taoyuan at the start of last season.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
Spanish champions Barcelona opened their Spanish La Liga campaign on Saturday with an island cruise as they played almost an hour against nine men on their way to a 3-0 victory in RCD Mallorca. Barcelona’s second-half stroll did not please coach Hansi Flick. “They’re three important points, but I didn’t like the match,” he told broadcaster Movistar. “After going two goals up and following Mallorca’s two red cards, I think the team only gave 50 percent, and I didn’t like that,” he said. “Playing at 50 or 60 per cent is not possible against nine players.” Two of Barcelona’s Ballon
Manchester City signaled their intent to take back the English Premier League title as Erling Haaland struck twice in a 4-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday to begin their campaign. After four consecutive titles, City finished a distant third last season as Pep Guardiola’s men failed to win any trophy for the first time in eight years. New signings Tijjani Reijnders, who was the star of the show at Molineux, and Rayan Cherki were also on target to give Guardiola hope his side would be back in the title race this season. “We knew he is a top signing
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS