Lin Yu-ching tossed seven effective innings of one-run ball and Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min drove in a pair of runs as the Brother Elephants edged past the Lamigo Monkeys 3-1 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday to clinch the weekend series.
In the third straight game that was decided by two or fewer runs between the two clubs, it was the Elephants who got the job done when it mattered the most as they came through with the timely hits to humble a Primates team in a series that could have easily gone the other way.
After Chia Chia’s two-run double put the Elephants ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first, the men in the golden uniforms added to their lead with a run in the third, when Wang Sheng-wei and Chen Jiang-ho connected on back-to-back singles with two outs to score a runner from third.
The Monkeys finally broke through with a run off Lin in the top of the fourth when Kuo Yen-wen led off the inning with a rare triple and scored on Lin Hung-yu’s sacrifice fly on the ensuing play to make it 3-1. However, that was all the offense the defending champions could muster off the Elephants starter as they came up empty in the fifth inning, despite a leadoff double off Lin.
They then hit into a double play in the eighth to strand another runner.
Lin was awarded his sixth win of the season for his outstanding effort, while the loss went to Wang Yi-cheng, who made a quality start in his own right (three earned runs on seven hits over 6-1/3 innings of play) in a losing cause.
LIONS 9, RHINOS 1
The Uni-President Lions beat the EDA Rhinos for the second straight night by roughing up the first-half champions in a 9-1 rout at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung yesterday.
It was an excellent way for the Cats to top off a great weekend of baseball that saw staff ace Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen overtake the lead in career victories with No. 109 on Saturday.
Nelson Figueroa followed Du Du with seven strong innings of five-hit ball, with the lone Rhinos run off him being unearned to win his second straight start.
Leading the way for the Cats were Kuo Jung-yo, Deng Chih-wei and Chang “OEO” Tai-shan, who teed off against the Rhinos pitching with a pair of hits and an RBI apiece to account for the bulk of their team’s offense.
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
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