Behind seven strong innings of one-run ball by Nelson Figueroa and a two-run home run by Kuo Dai-chi in the bottom of the fourth, the Uni-President Lions took a 5-1 lead through the seventh and held off a tenacious rally by the Brother Elephants to escape with a 5-3 win at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only gave the resurging Cats a 2-1 margin in the weekend series in central Taiwan, but also marked their fifth victory in the past six chances to keep them in the title hunt in the second half.
After three scoreless frames, it was the Elephants who drew first blood against Figueroa in the top of the fourth, when Chou Si-chi led off the inning with an opposite-field double and scored on Huang Shih-hao’s sacrifice fly three batters later to give his team a 1-0 advantage.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Lions came right back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of Kuo’s two-run blast off Elephant starter Lin Yu-ching that made it 2-1.
The Lions would put up three more runs in the next three innings to take a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead, before the Elephants mustered one final offensive in the top of the ninth with a pair of runs off Lion closer Lin Yueh-ping.
Lin calmly registered the final three outs to preserve the win for Figueroa, who improved to 4-3 for the season.
MONKEYS 5, RHINOS 1
The Lamigo Monkeys avoided being swept by the EDA Rhinos with a 5-1 win in their weekend finale at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Kaohsiung last night.
Starter Wang Yi-cheng pocketed his first career win in the league with seven solid innings of work to silence a potent Rhino lineup that had won the previous two games in the series and were looking to sweep the home stand over the weekend.
“It’s an amazing feeling to see so many fans come out to support us, this win is for all of you,” Wang said after learning of his selection to the game-MVP honor.
He had played four seasons with the Yokohama BayStars of Japan’s NPB prior to joining the Monkeys at the start of the season.
Offensively for the victorious Primates, the night belonged to cleanup man Lin Hung-yu, who drove in a pair of runs on a 2-for-5 night to anchor a heart of the order consisting of Chan Chih-yao and Kuo Sho-yen, who batted a collective 5-for-14 in the game to drive in four of their team’s five runs.
Taking the loss for the Rhinos was starter Andy Sisco, who fell victim to a lack of run support despite an effort worthy of a quality start with three allowed runs (two earned) on four hits in 6-2/3 innings of play.
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
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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