The Wei Chuan Dragons last night overpowered the Rakuten Monkeys 6-3 in Game 7 to clinch their first Taiwan Series title since 1999.
The win, secured in front of a raucous home crowd at Tianmu Baseball Stadium, was the Dragons’ first since rejoining the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 2020, and the franchise’s fifth overall.
The Dragons won the inaugural Taiwan Series in 1990 and three titles from 1997 to 1999.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
Dragons manager Yeh Chun-chang (葉君璋), who played for the team during its first stint in the CPBL, said the victory had left him “speechless,” and he thanked the team’s fans for their support.
Most Valuable Player of the game went to Dragons starter Drew Gagnon, who cruised through six innings, giving three runs (two earned) on five hits, while striking out five with no walks in an 88-pitch outing.
The Taiwan Series Most Valuable Player award went to Dragons Game 6 starter Hsu Jo-hsi (徐若熙), who ensured a key victory that saw the teams tied at 3-3.
In yesterday’s do-or-die Game 7, the Monkeys had a great start in the opening frame with an RBI single from designated hitter Liao Chieh-fu (廖健富) giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Their early one-run margin did not last long after the Dragons batters took advantage of Monkeys starter Jake Dahlberg’s poor control.
The US import threw just 30 pitches, only eight of which were strikes, and was taken out of the game after retiring just two Dragons batters while giving up three runs on five walks and two hits in the bottom of the first.
Reliever Tseng Jen-ho (曾仁和) gave up another two runs, giving the home team a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the first.
The Monkeys managed to mount a comeback and added two more runs in the second frame to close the gap to 5-3.
In the bottom of the eighth, Dragons catcher Chiang Shao-hung’s (蔣少宏) RBI single widened the gap to 6-3.
Closer Jake Brigham was then called to the mound in the top of the ninth to seal the historic victory for the home squad before a full house at Tianmu Baseball Stadium tossed red ribbons to celebrate the long-awaited Taiwan Series title.
The Dragons left the CPBL in 1999 immediately after their last Taiwan Series win amid a series of league-wide match-fixing scandals.
In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise’s return to the CPBL took place. The team played one season of CPBL minor league baseball in 2020 and rejoined the CPBL major league in 2021.
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS