Led by veterans coming through with key hits, the Brothers Baseball Club yesterday wrapped up the first half of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season in winning fashion, scoring one late run to edge the Uni-President Lions 5-4 at Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Kaohsiung.
Designated hitter Peng Cheng-min clobbered a two-run homer, his second round-tripper in as many games, to give the Brothers an early 2-0 lead.
The Lions then got their offense going, with both sides trading runs to level at 4-4 in the fifth inning.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The game remained tied until the eighth frame, when veteran shortstop Chen Chiang-ho hit an RBI-single to knock in the winning run, with the Brothers securing the 5-4 score line.
US right-hander Nathan Long pitched five innings to start the game for the Brothers, while set-up man Kuan Ta-yuan pitched the final inning to pocket his first win of the season.
In the other makeup game on Saturday, the EDA Rhinos salvaged a win to end a seven-game losing skid, trouncing the Brothers 12-4 in Taichung.
EDA catcher Fang Ke-wei had an outstanding day, blasting two home runs and accounting for six RBI’s to lead his team out of a miserable slump over the past month, in which the Rhinos lost 11 out of 13 contests.
Executives of E-United Group, the Rhinos’ owners, earlier this month expressed their disappointment with the team’s poor performance by announcing the club was up for sale, shaking up Taiwan’s professional baseball community.
Yesterday’s game marked the conclusion of the first half of the CPBL season, with each of the four teams having played 60 games, and confirmed the Brothers as the best team so far this season. The Brothers topped the standing with 35 wins, 23 losses and two draws, securing them a berth in the season-ending Taiwan Series championship finals.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
Bjorn Werner on Saturday signed everything thrust in front of him by NFL fans who packed a Berlin plaza. His old Indianapolis Colts jersey — it is a best-seller in Germany — footballs, scarves, miniature helmets. Even a cleat. Werner’s NFL career ended after three seasons because of injuries, but he has become a star in his home country as a TV commentator and media personality. He cohosts a popular podcast, has a big social media presence and is credited with helping popularize the sport in Germany. As the former first-round draft pick waded through throngs of fans, he looked around and took
RSS