Improved pitching, coupled with timely hitting, has translated into a winning month for the previously struggling Brother Elephants.
After a disappointing April that saw the men in yellow go 6-13 with a five-game and a six-game losing skid, dead last in the standings, the Elephants have recovered from their worst start in recent years by winning five of their nine contests so far this month.
Leading the recent surge for the Elephants off the mound is hard-throwing right-hander Chen Hong-wen, who has made a smooth transition from his former closer’s role to his current starting role with a pair of solid starts in which he went seven innings apiece with an earned run in each outing that resulted in two wins for his club.
The Hualien native who spent six seasons in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system and two seasons in the Mexican Pacific League before opting to return to his homeland this year could be the staff ace that the Elephants have sorely missed with injury bothering Lin En-yu and former first round draft pick Lin Yu-ching falling a tad short of expectations in his second season with the team.
Offensively for the Elephants, timely hitting has made the difference after four of their last five wins were decided by five combined runs.
These incorporated a pair of extra-inning triumphs courtesy of the resurging Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, whose average has risen over 60 points from .200 to .262 this month, with three homers and six RBIs.
While the main focus of attention has fallen on the two-horse race for the first half title between the Uni-President Lions and the EDA Rhinos, an equally heated battle to stay out of last place in the standings has resulted in an exciting start for the league that has seen people talking baseball more than ever and fans filling up ball parks across the nation for the first time in years.
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
Taiwan’s world No. 6 shuttler Chou Tien-chen yesterday defeated India’s H.S. Prannoy to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Changzhou. It was former world No. 2 Chou’s eighth win in 14 matches against Prannoy, who had earlier this week lamented the age divide between him and up-and-comers, although he is only two years younger than 35-year-old Chou. The Taiwanese, who is seeded sixth at the tournament, rebounded from a close 21-18 loss in game 1 on Court 2 at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. He bounced back to take the next games 21-15, 21-8 and set up a tough quarter-final
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
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