The Uni-President Lions clinched the second-half title with a narrow 2-1 victory over the Brother Elephants at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only completed the Cats climb from last place in the standings all the way to the top in one of the most dramatic midseason turnarounds in recent history, but also earned them a ticket into the upcoming Taiwan Series to take on the first-half champs the EDA Rhinos.
Kao Chih-kang’s clutch single with the bases loaded drove in two runs that broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth to give the Lions a 2-0 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish despite allowing the Elephants to plate their lone run of the game in the bottom of the seventh that made it 2-1.
Leading the way on the mound for the victorious Cats was starter Nelson Figueroa who tossed seven effective innings of one-run ball on six hits and four strikeouts before handing the game to the Lion bullpen.
And the relieving corps made up of hired guns Boof Bonser from the US and Luis Vizcaino from the Dominican Republic would equal the task by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively to preserve the win.
The trio of foreign hurlers may very well be a newfound winning pitching combination for coach Chen Lien-hung who took over from predecessor Terushi Nakajima in the middle of the season after the latter was relieved of his job after a dismal first half of the season.
RHINOS 7, MONKEYS 2
Shen Fu-ren’s tiebreaking grand slam in the top of the ninth was difference as the EDA Rhinos overcame an early 2-0 deficit with seven unanswered runs to top the Lamigo Monkeys 7-2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the first career home run for the fifth-year infielder and former pitcher, giving his club a much needed victory after having lost four of their last five to fall out of title contention.
Picking up the win for the Rhinos was Tsai Ming-jin, who retired both of the batters he faced to end the eighth and improve to 5-4, while the loss was charged against Lamigo starter Tseng Jau-hao.
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
Taiwan’s world No. 6 shuttler Chou Tien-chen yesterday defeated India’s H.S. Prannoy to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Changzhou. It was former world No. 2 Chou’s eighth win in 14 matches against Prannoy, who had earlier this week lamented the age divide between him and up-and-comers, although he is only two years younger than 35-year-old Chou. The Taiwanese, who is seeded sixth at the tournament, rebounded from a close 21-18 loss in game 1 on Court 2 at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. He bounced back to take the next games 21-15, 21-8 and set up a tough quarter-final
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
RSS