Romulo Sanchez pitched seven innings of shutout ball, while Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min drove in three runs with a towering blast in the bottom of the first as the Chinatrust Brothers blanked the Lamigo Monkeys 3-0 at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series.
Fresh off an 8-5 win over the Primates at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City the night before to start the weekend on a high note, the Brothers needed to win last night’s contest to overtake the top-ranked EDA Rhinos, winners of four of their past five heading into their game last night, to take the lead in the standings.
And that was exactly what the men in the golden uniforms got as Sanchez took a perfect game two outs into the fourth, before giving up a single to the Monkeys’ Lin Chih-sheng in the inning.
With the weight off his shoulders, the Venezuelan righty cruised through the seventh by allowing only two more hits and one more runner to reach second in one of his best outings of the season to lift his team over their foes.
Offensively for the Brothers, Chia Chia’s first-inning blast off Monkeys starter Tseng Jau-hao proved to be the difference as the latter quickly regained his composure by silencing the Brothers offense through the sixth without further damage to keep his team in the game.
Picking up his first win of the season was Sanchez, while the loss by Tseng was his sixth of the year. He is now 1-6 in 12 starts with an ERA of 4.01.
Lions 15, Rhinos 5
The Uni-President Lions roughed up the EDA Rhinos 15-5 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to ruin the Rhinos’ visit to Greater Tainan.
Five quick runs over the first two frames by the Rhinos’ offense, highlighted by Kao Guo-hui’s three-run home run off Liao Wen-yang, had many Lions fans booing their normally dependable starter, despite his team-best 9-4 record.
The five early runs turned out to be the only runs that Liao would surrender before he was pulled after the sixth with a commanding 13-5 lead after four consecutive shutout innings from the third on.
Doing the damage at the plate for the Cats were Chang “OEO” Tai-shan and Chou Guan-sheng, who drove in seven runs on a combined 6-for-9 effort to humiliate the EDA pitching.
Liao was awarded his 10th win of the year with a prompt recovery from a dismal start, allowing five runs (two earned) on as many hits over six innings of work to beat EDA reliever Lin Chen-hua, who gave up two runs on a pair of hits in the decisive fourth to remain winless at 0-7 for the year.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but