The Lamigo Monkeys yesterday hammered out 17 hits on their way to a record 11-0 blowout in Game 7 against the Brothers Baseball Club to win the CPBL Taiwan Series for the second straight year.
It was a sweet victory for hosts the Monkeys, who stormed back after falling behind 3-1 early in the series and taking three straight wins to secure Taiwan’s professional baseball title, the fourth championship victory in franchise history.
Lamigo starter Pat Misch, a US pitcher who played for the San Francisco Giants in MLB, pitched a masterpiece no-hitter to shut out the Brothers and make CPBL history for the first no-hitter in championship finals.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Misch cruised through nine innings to face the minimum 27 batters with seven strikeouts for a 99-pitch shutout victory.
After the game, Misch credited teammate Liu Shih-hao (劉時豪), saying: “My catcher called a good game, I just pitched to where he wanted the ball. Then I got the batters down in order, inning by inning, and our defense was outstanding tonight.”
The 11-run margin broke the record for the most lopsided victory in a championship final, with the previous high a 13-5 rout by the Uni-President Lions over the Weichuan Dragons in 1991.
Photo: CNA
Brothers starter Chiu Pin-ruei (邱品睿) got in trouble in the opening frame, giving up a two-run homer to Lamigo slugger Ngayaw Ake (also known as Lin Chih-sheng, 林智勝) as the Monkeys grabbed a quick 2-0 lead.
Lin was voted the series’ MVP for his performance: three home runs, 14 hits, 11 RBIs and seven runs scored over the past seven games.
In the third inning, Lamigo shortstop Kuo Yen-wen (郭嚴文), with two runners on base, ripped a shot into left field for a double, bringing two runs home. At that point, Chiu was replaced by second pitcher Tu Chia-ming (杜家明).
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
However, Tu could do little against the Monkeys’ red hot bats, as Kuo’s double had already opened the floodgate for his team.
The next three Lamigo players all had hits, including another double by Yu Te-lung (余德龍) for two runs, resulting in the Brothers calling up their third pitcher, Lin Ying-chieh (林英傑), to contain the damage.
After that productive inning, in which the Monkeys sent 10 players to the plate, the outcome was no longer in doubt, as the hosts had piled on five runs to widen their lead to 7-0.
The Monkeys added individual runs in the sixth and seven innings, followed by two more in the eighth frame, finishing the game at 11-0.
Lamigo manager Hung Yi-chung (洪一中) said it was “a dream come true” to stage a comeback in the series to defend their title, adding: “I told my team not to think about the pressure and to just make good ball selections, not chase bad pitches and take one win at a time.”
CALL FOR PEACE: Czech President Petr Pavel raised concerns about China’s military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait and its ‘unfriendly action’ in the South China Sea The leaders of three diplomatic allies — Guatemala, Paraguay and Palau — on Tuesday voiced support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN on the first day of the UN General Debate in New York. In his address during the 78th UN General Assembly, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr urged the UN and all parties involved in cross-strait issues to exercise restraint and seek a peaceful resolution. “The well-being and prosperity of nations and their economies are intrinsically linked to global peace and stability,” he said. He also thanked partner nations such as Taiwan, Australia, Japan and the US for providing assistance
CROSS-STRAIT CONCERNS: At the same US Congress hearing, Mira Resnick said a US government shutdown could affect weapons sales and licenses to allies such as Taiwan A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would be a “monster risk” for Beijing and likely to fail, while a military invasion would be extremely difficult, senior Pentagon officials told the US Congress on Tuesday. Growing worries of a conflict come as China has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan, holding large-scale war games simulating a blockade on the nation, while conducting near-daily warplane incursions and sending Chinese vessels around its waters. US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said a blockade would be “a monster risk for the PRC [People’s Republic of China].” “It would likely not succeed, and it
‘HARASSMENT’: A record 103 Chinese warplanes were detected in 24 hours, posing severe challenges to security in the Taiwan Strait and the region, the ministry said Taiwan yesterday told China to stop its “destructive unilateral actions” after more than 100 Chinese warplanes and nine navy ships were detected in areas around the nation. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) described the number of warplanes detected in 24 hours as a “recent high,” while Beijing has so far refrained from issuing any official comment on the sorties. “Between the morning of September 17th to 18th, the Ministry of National Defense had detected a total of 103 Chinese aircraft, which was a recent high and has posed severe challenges to the security across the Taiwan Strait and in the region,”
IMPORTS: Fifty-four million imported eggs with a value of more than NT$200 million had to be destroyed, mostly because they expired in storage facilities Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) last night announced that he would resign from his post. Local media on Sunday reported that Chen had resigned due to controversy over the ministry’s egg import program. Later that same evening, the Executive Yuan said that Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) had asked the minister to stay on to resolve the issue. Chen Chi-chung last night made public his decision to resign on Facebook, saying that this time he would not be dissuaded. Chen Chi-chung earlier yesterday apologized for the furor surrounding the egg import program, but added that misinformation had made the problems worse. The government was
RSS