Powered by Chen Chiang-ho’s first home run of the season, the Chinatrust Brothers erased an early deficit with a three-run sixth and went on to defeat the EDA Rhinos 8-4 at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night to jumpstart their makeup week.
The win came after the most-storied franchise in the league’s history announced the signing of former US Major League player Jose Contreras of Cuba.
The resumption of a rain-suspended May 24 contest in Hualien began in the top of the third, in which the visiting Rhinos scored three runs on the back of an RBI groundout by Lin Yi-chuan and a two-run single by Yang Guan-wei to turn a 1-3 deficit into a 4-3 lead.
Photo: EPA
EDA’s slim lead lasted into the sixth, with Andy Sisco holding his ground from the third through the fifth before the American lefty served up Chen’s three-run blast that ended up being the game-winning hit.
Chinatrust kept the EDA hitters at bay with starter Mike McClendon pitching shutout ball on six hits over 6-2/3 innings of work for his third win of the season.
Taking the loss was Sisco, who allowed five runs on as many hits over 5-1/3 frames, his third setback of the season since rejoining the Rhinos earlier in the month.
LIONS 1, MONKEYS 8
The top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys roughed up the Uni-President Lions at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to lift their league-best mark to 36-22.
The Monkeys have shown no signs of slowing down since clinching the first-half title two weeks ago, taking eight of their past 10 to give their supporters something to cheer about.
Lin Chih-sheng’s two-run blast off Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-lung in the bottom of the first got things moving in the right direction for the Primates, who rang up three off the Lions starter in the opening frame to set the tone early.
After three scoreless innings in which neither offense could do much against the effective pitching of Du Du and Lamigo starter Wang Yi-cheng, the home team struck again in the fifth, when Chan Chih-yao led off the inning with a single and scored three batters later on Lin’s sacrifice fly, followed by Kuo Yung-wei’s run-scoring single with two outs that knocked out Du Du.
Even though the Lions finally got on the board in the top of the sixth with Chou Kuan-sheng’s sacrifice fly to avoid the shutout, the outcome of the game was never in doubt.
The Monkeys quickly added to their lead with a three-run seventh to put the game away long before the final out.
Picking up his eighth win of the year was Wang, who improved to a career-best 8-2 with seven innings of one-run ball despite giving up six hits, while the loss was charged against Du Du, who fell to 5-5 with five allowed runs on nine hits in 4-2/3 innings of play.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB