Mike Loree pitched seven innings of shutout ball in a two-hit gem, Lin Wang-wei homered to drive in a pair of runs on a two-for-three night and the EDA Rhinos held off a ninth-inning rally by hosts the Uni-President Lions to escape with a 5-4 win at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
Mike Loree’s pitching was one of the most dominating efforts by a starter in a season opener in recent years, giving the US righty an auspicious start that was worthy of the game’s MVP honor.
Equally impressive was Lin, in his professional debut, who made a genius out of skipper Von Joshua for starting the slugger at centerfield to provide his club some much-needed offensive power after their dismal third-place finish in the regular season last year.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The road Rhinos needed little time solving Lion starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-lun, as they ripped a double and a single off the veteran right-hander for a pair of runs in the top of the second to take a 2-0 lead.
After a scoreless third, the visitors struck again on the strength of Lin’s two-run blast off Du Du that made it 4-0.
Even though Pan managed to navigate through the sixth without further damage, the seventh inning was not as kind to him as he served up EDA’s fifth run of the game on a clean double to Hu Chin-lung that scored the runner from second to give the Rhinos a seemingly safe 5-0 lead.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The seventh-inning run proved to be the difference in the game, with hosts the Cats finally breaking through with four runs off Rhino closer Luo Chia-ren, and actually had the tying run in scoring position before Luo struck out Liu Fu-hao to preserve the win.
Five different Rhino hitters had multi-hit games on the night, with Lin leading the way.
Picking up the win was Loree, while the loss was charged against Pan who allowed five runs (only three earned) on 10 hits over seven frames to lose his first start of the year.
BROTHERS 6, MONKEYS 14
The Lamigo Monkeys avenged their bitter loss to the Chinatrust Brothers in the season opener the night before by roughing up the men in the golden uniform in a 14-6 final at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to split the weekend series against the Brothers with one win apiece.
Six runs by the hosts in the bottom of the first set the tone early in the contest, as the hitters on both teams had little trouble against the pitching.
By the time all was said and done, 20 runs had crossed the plate on 31 combined hits, four of which were homers.
Lin Po-yo was credited with the win for his five innings of one-run relief, while the loss went to Brother starter Cheng Chi-hung, who allowed six runs on four hits over just two-thirds of an inning’s work in a disappointing start.
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
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
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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