The EDA Rhinos capped a five-game winning streak with a 14-3 victory over the Uni-President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night and took over top spot in the league table, poised for a berth in the CPBL’s post-season Taiwan Series.
Cleanup man Lin Yi-chuan and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Hu Chin-lung led by example for the resurgent Rhinos as they each hit two homers to ignite the power surge and feasting on four Lions’ pitchers in a game that featured eight homers.
Lin slammed his 14th and 15th home runs of the season, while Hu contributed with his sixth and seventh four-baggers of the campaign. They hit a combined seven RBIs in the game.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Outfielder Kao Kuo-hui slammed a solo homer against the Lions’ American starting pitcher Bruce Billings to push his season total to 26.
Still in the chase for home run title, Kao was in third place after last night’s contest, behind the two power sluggers of Brothers Baseball Club, Chiang Chi-hsieng with 30 and Lin Chih-sheng with 29.
The eight home runs also tied a CPBL record for the most homers by one team in a regular-season game.
Billings was charged with the loss after tossing five innings and yielding six earned runs on six hits, with four of them home runs.
The Rhinos’ second pitcher Kuo Sheng-an got credited with the win after he came in the third inning to throw 3-1/3 scoreless innings without giving up a hit.
In the game last night, Brothers Baseball Club broke a 2-2 deadlock in their final at-bat with one run in the bottom of ninth frame to edge the Lamigo Monkeys 3-2 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
The Monkeys’ American reliever Zack Segovia drew the fans’ ire for the loss when, facing loaded bases, he threw a wild pitch into the dirt that catcher Lin Hung-yu could not handle, allowing the Brothers runner to come home from third base for the winning margin.
It has been a dramatic turnaround for the Rhinos over the past week after Fubon Financial Holding Co announced on Wednesday that it would purchase the franchise for NT$280 million (US$8.87 million), giving the players plenty of reason to cheer after having been unsettled in June after owners E-United Group decided to put the club up for sale.
Since the announcement, the surging Rhinos have won five in a row, beginning yesterday just half a game behind league leaders the Monkeys.
The Rhinos’ victory and the Moneys’ defeat yesterday would have made the new owners very happy as the Rhinos claimed first place for the first time in the second half of the season, staking a claim to challenge for the championship trophy.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS