Five unanswered runs by the Lamigo Monkeys in the bottom of the eighth turned a 0-2 deficit into a 5-2 lead as they held on with a perfect ninth to defeat the Uni-President Lions at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to clinch the weekend series.
Yeh Chu-hsuan’s sacrifice fly to right-field off Lions closer Kuo Hung-chih that scored Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu from third sparked what ended up being a five-run eighth for the Primates as they rallied from two down with unusual discipline at the plate by drawing three straight walks off one of the league’s premier closers to deny the Lions the victory.
“It’s an honor to be able to make a contribution for the win,” Yeh said after the game after receiving the MVP award from officials.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
His crafty swing to send an offering from Kuo past the Lions infield allowed just enough time to get a slow Lin Hung-yu to crash the plate for the go-ahead run in the decisive eighth.
The highly anticipated showdown between starters Amaury Rivas of the Lions and Wang Yi-cheng lived up to its billing as neither offense was able to score through the fifth with the former tossing one-hit ball and the latter keeping it scoreless despite giving up four hits over the same span.
Things changed when the Lions finally broke through in the top of the sixth, with Chang “OEO” Tai-shan taking Wang deep for a solo home run that made it 1-0 before Lin Chih-hsiang’s two-out single with a runner on second scored the Lions second run of the game in the top of the seventh.
The 2-0 lead for the road Cats lasted less than an inning as the Monkeys jumped all over Rivas’ successor, Fu Yu-kang, with a pair of singles in the eighth to force skipper Chen Lien-hung to bring in Kuo an inning earlier than he would have like.
Kuo’s early entry proved irrelevant for the Lions as he went deep in the count against the next three batters he faced to walk in two straight runs before giving up the game-winner to Yeh.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS