Chang Yu on Monday became the fourth Taiwanese to homer in the majors, but the 24-year-old Cleveland Indians infield prospect filling in for injured third baseman Jose Ramirez, who broke his hand last month, was upstaged by a local boy coming home.
Chants of “Let’s go, Bieber” rolled out of the Angel Stadium stands before Shane Bieber had even thrown a pitch. The raucous cheers continued all night long and they culminated in that rarest of baseball honors: a curtain call for a visiting player.
Although the Indians were on the road, Bieber was at home — and the kid from Laguna Hills definitely pitched like it.
Photo: AP
Bieber threw seven stellar innings of five-hit ball in his first career start at his hometown stadium, while rookie Chang hit his first major league homer in the Indians’ 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Bieber (14-7), the Indians’ All-Star right-hander, is an Orange County native who grew up 20 minutes away from the ballpark where he collected Rally Monkey dolls as a kid.
“I got a little bit nostalgic pre-game in the bullpen [when] they were playing Train, Calling All Angels,” Bieber said “Just a lot of memories here. That was definitely special for me.”
The homecoming was well attended, too: Bieber had dozens of raucous fans — “at least 150 that we know of,” he said — repeatedly chanting his name from a section behind the visitors’ dugout at the Big A.
Bieber’s parents organized tickets for much of the turnout from his hometown and from University of California, Santa Barbara, where the walk-on matured into a fourth-round draft pick.
The All-Star Game Most Valuable Player struck out eight Angels without a walk while allowing only one run for the first time since July.
Bieber retired 17 of his final 18 hitters, and his cheering section serenaded him throughout the night. He even took a road curtain call after finishing the seventh inning with his eighth consecutive out.
“No, I’ve never seen that,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “It didn’t get in the way of his pitching and it was kind of cool to see. I know how fond we are of him, but I thought it was a pretty cool moment.”
Chang, the 16th Taiwanese to play in the major leagues, hit his three-run homer in the sixth inning, while Jason Kipnis also had a two-run shot for the Indians (84-61), who pulled right behind Oakland (84-60) for the second American League wild-card spot with their first back-to-back wins this month.
Albert Pujols hit his 655th home run and two-way prospect Jared Walsh added his first career homer for the Angels, who opened their penultimate homestand with their sixth defeat in eight games.
Also on Monday, the Mets mastered the Diamondbacks 3-1, the Yankees routed the Red Sox 5-0, the Astros thrashed the Athletics 15-0, the Braves beat the Phillies 7-2, the Brewers battered the Marlins 8-3, the Pirates rallied past the Giants 6-4 and the Cubs crushed the Padres 10-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS