A costly error by Brother Elephants second baseman Chen Wei-rue that resulted in two runs for the Uni-President Lions capped a three-run rally in the top of the sixth as the Cats turned a 2-4 deficit into a 5-4 lead and held on to win at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball last night.
The victory gave them a one-game lead over the Rhinos in the standings, with the Rhinos losing to the Lamigo Monkeys in Taoyuan.
What should have been a double-play ball for Chen, who had plenty of time to complete the twin killing, turned into a two-run gift for the league leaders, who found themselves in unfamiliar territory as they trailed the Elephants by two through the fifth.
That was the confidence boost that the Lions were looking for as the bullpen took control of the game with four innings of shutout ball, despite allowing a pair of runners to reach safety in each of the final three innings.
Topping the Lions’ several stellar defensive plays was a shoestring catch by centerfielder Tang Jao-ting in the bottom of the ninth, in which he robbed the Elephants’ Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min of a potential game-tying double to keep the Elephants’ offense at bay.
Picking up the win was starter Luo Ching-lung, who allowed four runs on nine hits over five effective innings to beat his counterpart Lin Yu-ching, who pitched into the sixth before being pulled, but was charged with all five of the Lions’ runs (three earned) in a losing cause.
Monkeys 10, Rhinos 5
The Lamigo Monkeys roughed up the EDA Rhinos at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to sweep the weekend series against their archrivals from Kaohsiung.
The win also increased the defending champs’ win streak to a season-high four as they look to close out the first half in winning form after a disappointing May that dropped them out of contention for the first-half title.
The home Primates greeted Rhinos starter Lin Ying-jeh with a five-run first that knocked out the lefty from Kaohsiung’s Kao Yuan Vocational High School, who had gone 4-1 in his eight previous starts prior to yesterday’s defeat. He was charged with all five of the Monkeys’ runs, while managing to record just one out on the night.
Failure to come up with the big hits made the difference in the game as the Monkeys were able to produce 10 runs on the 15 hits they mustered, compared with the five that the Rhinos managed off the 17 hits they belted off the Monkeys’ pitching to strand more than a dozen runners.
Starter Wang Fong-hsin was credited with the win for his five innings of four-run ball on 10 hits, thanks to a potent offense that backed him up with double-digit runs.
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
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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