The top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys celebrated clinching the first-half title on Friday night with a narrow 4-3 triumph over the Chinatrust Brothers last night at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
The win marked the Primates’ 10th straight home win against the Brothers, an impressive streak that dates back to September last year when the Brothers were known as the Brother Elephants prior to being acquired by Chinatrust Bank.
The Brothers wasted little time against Monkey starter Roydrick Merritt, jumping to a quick 1-0 lead in the opening frame when Chang Cheng-wei led off with a single, took third two batters later and scored on a throwing error by Lamigo catcher Liu Shih-hao.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The 1-0 lead lasted less than an inning as the home Monkeys returned the favor by plating two off Brothers starter Chen Hung-wen on a sacrifice fly by Lin Chih-ping and an RBI single by Yu The-lung in the bottom of the same inning to grab a 2-1 advantage.
After a quick top half of the second inning, the Monkeys offense hit two more runs on the strength of a pair of doubles and a single off Chen that made it 4-1, a score that remained through the fifth before the visitors scored their second run off Merritt on Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s RBI double.
Chinatrust tacked on one more run in the eighth to make it 4-3 and threatened to tie the game up in the top of the eighth with runners at the corners and two outs, but reliever Chen Yu-hsun’s inning-ending strikeout stranded the players on base.
That set up a shaky ninth for the Monkeys in which closer Miguel Mejia allowed runners to reach first and second with one out before retiring the next two batters to preserve the win for Merritt.
Chen Yu-hsun was named Most Valuable Player despite facing only one batter because his inning-ending strikeout proved invaluable to the Monkeys’ victory.
Taking the loss was Chen Hung-wen, who fell to 3-4 for the season, allowing four runs on six hits in seven innings.
LIONS 5, RHINOS 1
The Uni-President Lions bounced back from a 5-0 shutout loss to the EDA Rhinos on Friday evening with a convincing win at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to even the weekend series at one win apiece.
Huang En-tzi’s two-run double off Rhinos starter Huang Sheng-hsiung was the difference as the Lions took the lead for good with a three-run sixth that broke a 1-1 deadlock wide open.
Shairon Martis was credited with the win for holding the Rhinos to a lone run on four hits over seven innings to beat his counterpart Huang Sheng-hsiung.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS