American starter Bruce Kern yesterday led the Lamigo Monkeys to a 5-2 victory over the Fubon Guardians, while the Uni-President Lions blasted three home runs to subdue the Brothers 9-4.
The Monkeys needed the stellar performance from Kern — who yielded two runs on six hits through seven innings — to snap the team’s four-game losing streak.
Despite the slump, the Monkeys still top the table with 21 wins and 10 losses, three games ahead of the second-placed Lions, who have four games on the Guardians.
Meanwhile, the Brothers last week picked up three wins, two of which were against the Lions.
The Lions on Tuesday gave their home fans in Tainan something to celebrate when they snapped their nine-game home losing streak against the Monkeys with a 6-5 victory.
Still behind 5-3 going into the bottom of eighth, shortstop Chen Hsien-chang hit a two-run homer, and one more run in the inning lifted the Lions into the lead.
On Thursday, American lefty pitcher Ryan Verdugo combined with two relievers to pocket his third win for the Lions: a 2-0 shutout against the Monkeys.
Verdugo allowed only six hits through seven innings, struck out eight and issued one walk, while reliever Chen Yun-wen entered in the ninth to earn his third save of the season.
However, the tables were turned against the Lions over the next two days, when they faced the Brothers in Taichung.
In a thrilling contest on Friday, the Brothers edged the Lions 5-4, Chang Chih-hao’s homer in the bottom of the ninth providing the decisive final point.
Brothers head coach Cory Snyder decided to use a false-start pitcher, sending Taiwanese lefty Hung Cheng-yu to toss for only two innings.
After Hung’s departure, it was American pitcher and former Monkey Zack Segovia’s turn to complete the game. He yielded only two runs and four hits to earn his second win of the season.
On Saturday, the 10-4 final score confirmed that the Brothers’ false-start strategy works well on the Lions, as Snyder sent second-year pitcher Yang Chih-lung onto the mound for the first two frames, only to give the main workload to American lefty Nick Addington.
Addington sailed through five scoreless innings to pick up his second win of the year.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later