Kuo Yi-feng’s clutch double with two-outs scored the go-ahead runs in the bottom of the sixth as the Brother Elephants held on to beat the Sinon Bulls 5-4 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Trailing 2-4 in the bottom of the sixth against a pretty stingy Bulls squad that had taken a two-game series from the dmedia T-Rex last weekend, the Elephants strung together consecutive singles off Sinon reliever Tsai Ming-jin after drawing a leadoff walk to score their third run of the game before Kuo turned the game around with his two-run double down the third-base line.
That was all it took as Yeh Yong-jeh and Ma Jia-rei combined for nearly three innings of scoreless relief to preserve the victory for game-winner Wu Bao-shien.
The Bulls did have two more scoring opportunities in the seventh and eighth with runners in scoring position and two outs in the seventh and one out in the eighth, but failed to come up with the timely hit necessary to tie the game.
BEARS 9, WHALES 6
The La New Bears needed a solo blast from Lin Chih-sheng to spark a three-run burst in the top of the 10th to top the Chinatrust Whales 9-6 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.
The hero of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar who drove in the game-winning run in the title game for Taiwan broke a 6-all tie in the top of the tenth with his ninth blast of the season before the Bears tacked on two more runs in the same inning to make it 9-6.
Closer Jermaine Van Buren made sure the lead stood this time by pitching a scoreless tenth for his second win of the year after he had allowed two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a single and a double to force the game into extra-innings in a blown save situation.
Also starring for the Bears was slugger Pan Chung-wei who drove in a season-high four runs on three hits.
LIONS 10, T-REX 9
Tilson Brito’s RBI double saved the day for the President Lions as they went 12 innings against the dmedia T-Rex before earning a 10-9 win at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Tuesday.
In a game that featured five lead-changes, it was dmedia who had the upper hand in the early going with a seemingly comfortable 7-4 lead through the sixth.
The Lions roared back with two runs each in the seventh and eighth to lead 8-7 before T-Rex tied it up at 8-8 in the eighth on a key double by newcomer Jose Leon.
The two teams traded a run each in the 10th before Brito’s extra-inning heroics delivered the emotional victory.
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
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West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
MLB is experiencing an epidemic of guys being dudes. At ballparks all across the US, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that is loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head. Soccer-like chants or singing usually follow — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that is occasionally chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium. After getting its start in St Louis, Missouri, on