The Uni-President Lions held off a three-run rally by the Chinatrust Brothers in the bottom of the ninth to escape with a 4-3 win at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night, sweeping the weekend’s three-game series.
Boof Bonser got the Brothers’ Wang Sheng-wei to fly out for the game-ending play, which kept the men in the golden uniforms from turning the tide on the Cats, who won their third straight game by a run.
The US righty, who entered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, managed to redeem himself after giving up a two-run double to Chinatrust’s Chen Chiang-ho that cut the Lions lead to a solitary run.
Photo: CNA
The showdown between the Lions’ Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen and Brothers newcomer Chris Cody saw the Cats drawing first blood after three scoreless innings, when Luo Kuo-lung tripled off Cody and scored on Pan “TAKE” Wu-hsiung’s three-bagger on the next play that made it 1-0 to the visitors.
The Cats extended their lead by two in the fifth, with a run-scoring single from Luo following an RBI groundout by Liu Fu-hao that put them ahead 3-0.
After three scoreless frames, the Lion offense scored their fourth run of the game when TAKE homered off reliever Wang Tzeh-chun, which proved invaluable because it represented the margin of victory, with the Brothers rallying for three runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Picking up his fifth win of the season with 8-2/3 innings of three-run ball on six hits was Du Du, who took a shutout two outs into the ninth before loading up the bases and surrendering a run, which prompted skipper Chen Lien-hung to bring on Bonser.
Tagged with the loss was Cody, who suffered his first defeat of the season in his third start for the Brothers. The southpaw from the US allowed three runs on eight hits over seven innings.
RHINOS 7, MONKEYS 1
The resurgent EDA Rhinos claimed a three-game road sweep of the Lamigo Monkeys with a win at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night, thanks to a solid Taiwan debut by newcomer Victor Garate of Venezuela.
Other than allowing the Monkeys’ lone run in the bottom of the third on a pair of hits, Garate was well on top of his game as he cruised through the sixth without further damage before being pulled after 105 pitches.
Offensively for the Rhinos, the night belonged to Chang Chien-ming and Hu Chin-lung, who combined for five RBIs on as many hits to account for the bulk of the team’s run production.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
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Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
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