Chang Cheng-wei’s two-out single with men at the corners scored the tiebreaking run in the top of the eighth and the Chinatrust Brothers tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the ninth to beat the Uni-President Lions 6-3 at the Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
The win marked the Brothers’ first on a weekend in nearly a month as they put just enough runs on the board to make a winner out of starter Cheng Kai-wen, who opened the season with three straight victories before dropping three of his past four heading into last night’s contest.
“It was a big win for us, there is no doubt about that,” Cheng said after the game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
He was rewarded with his fifth win of the season thanks to skipper Hsieh Chang-hen’s decision to leave his starter in the game one inning longer than normal, with Cheng hitting a new high for pitch count at 122 over eight innings of work.
Two quick runs by the Lions offense in the bottom of the first gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, which lasted just an inning as the Brothers answered with three in the top of the third courtesy of Chou Si-chi’s two-run single and a pair of deadly errors by the Lions defense that made it 3-2 in the visitors’ favor.
The Lions evened things up in the bottom of the fifth, when an ill-advised throw by Brothers second baseman Chen Wei-han on a inning-ending double-play attempt sailed wide to allow the runner to score all the way from second.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Neither offense scored over the next two innings, with Cheng holding his grounds and his counterpart Liao Wen-yang and Lions reliever Lin Chi-wei doing the same before Chinatrust’s eighth-inning offensive put the home squad ahead for good.
Trailing by three, the Cats had a chance against the Brothers when Deng Chih-wei and Luo Kuo-lung reached safety with one out and the tying run at the plate.
However, the Chinatrust closer buckled down and retired the next two batters he faced to strand two and preserve the victory.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
RHINOS 2, MONKEYS 3
Chen Chun-hsiu’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth capped a wild finish as the Lamigo Monkeys edged the EDA Rhinos at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to take the lead in the standings.
“I’m glad I was able to help our club win,” Chen Chun-hsiu said after the game.
“It belongs to all of us,” he said.
The former Cleveland Indians minor leaguer, who returned to Taiwan after spending eight seasons in the US, pulled off perfect 2-for-2 hitting with three walks to lead the Primates.
Starter Jared Lansford allowed only two runs (one earned) on nine hits over seven innings to stretch his quality-start streak to five straight.
Even though he missed his sixth win of the season by an inning, as he was pulled after the seventh, Lansford is still one of the top hurlers in the league with a solid 3.00 ERA.
Pocketing the win was reliever Lin Po-yo who tossed a scoreless ninth, while the loss was charged against Rhinos reliever Hsiao Yi-chieh for serving up Chen’s game-winner.
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