Tseng Hao-jui drove in all four of the Lamigo Monkeys’ runs on a 2-for-4 effort as they doubled up on the Uni-President Lions in a 4-2 final at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only evened the weekend series between the two squads in Tainan with a victory each, but also breathed new life into the struggling Primates, because they won for only the second time in their past seven games to trail the third-placed Brother Elephants by six games.
“I hope [the win] can help put our recent slump behind us and be the beginning of a turnaround,” Tseng said after the game as he accepted the game MVP honor from league officials.
It is the first time he has won the honor this year, after seeing limited action because of injury earlier this season.
It was his two-run blast off Lions starter Mike McClung that gave the traveling Monkeys a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
He single-handedly doubled the Monkeys’ lead in the third with a two-run double off the right-center wall to put his team ahead 4-0.
The home Cats managed to get a run back in the bottom of the same inning on the strength of Chen Yung-chi’s sacrifice fly off Lamigo starter Wang Fong-hsin and made it 4-2 in the fifth when Kao Chih-kang led off the inning with a double and scored on a wild pitch by Wang. However, that was as close as they got as the Monkeys right-hander answered with a perfect sixth and seventh before calling it a night.
After Hsieh Chang-rong tossed a perfect eighth, Hsu Ming-jeh followed with a perfect ninth to preserve the win for Wang.
Taking the loss was McClung, who pitched well enough to win with four allowed runs (three earned) on six hits, falling short of an even more impressive outing by Wang.
ELEPHANTS 7, RHINOS 4
Overcoming a three-run deficit with six unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh, the Brother Elephants turned the table on the EDA Rhinos with a 9-4 win at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night to avenge Friday’s loss.
Huang Shih-hao’s nifty slide to the plate on a passed ball by Rhinos reliever Chen Huan-yang just avoided the tag by Chen to cap off a four-run seventh that gave the Elephants a 7-4 lead.
The Elephants completed the rout on the league-leaders with two more runs in the ninth.
Starter Lin En-yu was credited with the win for his six innings of four-run ball on nine hits, while the loss was charged to reliever Lai Hong-cheng, who surrendered the winning runs to the Elephants in the forgettable seventh.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was