Chung “Yoyo Man” Cheng-yo’s walk-off single with the bases loaded scored the game-winning runs in the bottom of the ninth as the Lamigo Monkeys rallied to top the Uni-President Lions 7-6 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
In a game that featured four homers between the two teams, it was the Primates who had the last laugh, thanks to the slugger out of the National Taiwan Sport University, who has recovered from a mid-season slump with a six-game hitting streak to lift his team past their nemesis from Tainan. Chung drove in three runs on a three-for-four night to boost his average to a season-high .276.
“I knew we had a chance to pull it off if we believed in ourselves,” Chung said after the game.
His team have won six straight and 11 of their last dozen to ascend from the bottom of the standings to finish the first half of the season with a respectable 28-32 record.
Hoping to break out of a six-game slide, the Lions came out firing with two quick runs off Lamigo starter Wang Fong-hsin on the merits of back-to-back solo homers by Kuo Jung-yo and Deng Chih-wei in the top of the second.
After a scoreless third, the Lions struck again in the fourth, when Chang “OEO” Tai-shan led off the inning with a double and scored two batters later on an infield single by Liu Yu-chen.
The Primates finally broke through against the solid pitching of Lions starter Nelson Figueroa with five runs in the fourth and fifth to take a 5-3 lead, highlighted by a homer from Chan Chih-yao and an RBI triple by Chung.
The Lions fought back with their third and fourth long ball of the game, courtesy of Kuo on a three-homer night to take a 6-5 lead in the eighth.
After Kao Chien-san shook off a scoring threat by the Monkeys in the bottom of the eighth by stranding a runner on third, closer Lin Yueh-ping got the call from Lions manager Terushi Nakashima looking to close out the deal.
However, the normally sure-handed righty was unable to ring up the win as he allowed the leadoff man to reach on a single before loading up the bases with two outs to set up Chung’s game-winning swing.
Picking up the victory was reliever Chen Cheng-da, who served up Kuo’s third homer in the game with 1-1/3 innings of two-run ball to beat Lin for his second win of the season.
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