The Chinatrust Brothers surprised the second-placed EDA Rhinos with a 2-1 victory in the day game of a scheduled day-night doubleheader at the Hualien County Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to close out the drenched weekend on a high.
Cheng Kai-wen went the distance for coach Wu Fu-lien, who replaced his predecessor Hsieh Chang-hen last week by tossing one-run on six hits to pick up win No. 6 of the year.
He took a 2-0 shutout one out into the ninth before serving up back-to-back base hits to set up Lin Kuen-sheng’s sacrifice fly with runners on second and third for the Rhinos’ lone run of the game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Trailing by a run, the Rhinos had one final chance to tie the game with a runner in scoring position against Cheng, but the right-hander out of the Chinese Culture University was able to retire Yang Kuan-wei on a lazy popup to second to seal the deal.
“It’s great to be able to pick up the sixth win of the season after missing a great chance last week,” Cheng said after the game.
He wasted a golden opportunity in his last start against the top-of-the-table Lamigo Monkeys on May 16 in which he allowed an unearned run over seven effective innings, but was forced to settle for a no-decision due to an anemic Brothers offense which only managed to plate one run.
The Brothers wasted little time in the Taiwan debut for Rhinos right-hander Chuckie Fick by connecting on back-to-back two-out base hits by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min and Chou Si-chi to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
The lead proved more than ample for Cheng, who retired all but two of the 23 batters he faced through the seventh in his gutsiest performance of the year.
Tagged with his first loss of the season was Fick, who cruised through the fourth without further damage before being pulled. He allowed two runs on six hits, while fanning one and walking two.
The second game was postponed after 2-1/3 innings of play by heavy rain with the Brothers leading 3-1.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS