Make-up week continued with the EDA Rhinos topping the Brother Elephants 8-5 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only revived the Rhinos from a deflating last-inning loss to the Lamigo Monkeys the night before, but also lifted them back to the top of the standings above the Uni-President Lions.
A pair of homers by Kao Guo-ching on a four-RBI night led the way for the victors as they made the most of a six-run fourth to turn a 1-2 deficit into a 7-2 lead before holding off a late Elephants rally to prevail.
It was the first time that the former minor league standout for the Seattle Mariners had belted multiple homers in a game since returning to Taiwan, boosting his season total for long balls to seven and counting.
“Manny or no Manny, we will always do our best to keep the league and the sport going forever,” Kao said after the game, referring to the departure of iconic slugger Manny Ramirez earlier in the week.
The Rhinos have gone deep four times in the two games they have played without Ramirez.
After Elephants starter Chen Hung-wen gave up a quick run to the Rhinos in the top of the first, the men in yellow claimed the lead with a two-run blast by Chou Si-chi off EDA starter Lai Hong-cheng.
The 2-1 advantage lasted through the third before the Rhinos batted around the order in the decisive fourth to go ahead for good.
Picking up the win was reliever Chen Huan-yang, who entered in the fourth with two outs to rescue Lai with an inning-ending out.
Tagged with the loss was Elephants starter Chen, who lasted only four innings with seven allowed runs on eight hits.
MONKEYS 9, LIONS 6
Also rallying from behind were the Lamigo Monkeys, who erased a five-run deficit with a seven-run fifth to trip up the Uni-President Lions at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
Starter Tseng Jau-hao was credited with the win despite giving up six runs (four earned) over five innings of work to beat his counterpart Jon Leicester, thanks to a potent Primates offense that provided plenty of run support to improve to 5-4 for the year.
Trailing by three, the Lions made it interesting by loading up the bases against Monkeys closer J.D. Durbin with two outs. However, the American righty was able to get Deng Chih-wei on a grounder to second to deny the Lions what would have been an improbable comeback.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in