Taiwanese-born Chunichi Dragon minor leaguer Chen Wei-ying (
The former pitching standout on Taiwan's national baseball team joins fellow countrymen Chang Chih-jia (張誌家) and Hsu Ming-jeh (許明傑) of the Seibu Lions as the three active Taiwanese players currently playing in the NPBL.
The 18-year-old first gained international recognition when he was named as the top left-handed pitcher on Taiwan's silver-medal-winning team in the 2002 World Junior Baseball Championship.
The highly competitive tournament for high-school players is organized by the International Baseball Federation every other year in member nations throughout the world.
He later led Taiwan to a fourth-place finish in the Baseball World Cup held in Cuba last year while a freshman in the National College of Physical Education and Sports before being drafted by the Dragons earlier this year.
Projected as the Dragons' solution to the big left-handed bats in the Yomiuri Giants' lineup, Chen will receive guidance from famed Dragons skipper Ojiai Hiromitzu and pitching coach Mori Shigekazu.
His repertoire of pitches includes a solid fastball clocked well over 140kph, a nasty slider that runs up-and-in on right-handed batters, a curve ball that consistently paints the corners of the strike zone, and a splitter that he has recently develeped.
"He will not be starting for us yet, but when the opportunities present themselves, Chen will definitely get some chances to face the Giants' lefties in a relief role this year."
npbl roundup
The Daiei Hawks socked five round-trippers to overpower the Nippon Ham Fighters 9-6 on Monday.
Julio Zuleta led the way with a three-run homer in the second, followed by Nobuhiko Matsunaka's three-run shot in the third. Another Matsunaka homer and shots from Tadahito Iguchi and Kenji Jojima rounded out the score.
Nippon Ham fought back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth on a homer from Michihiro Ogasawara, but was unable to pull ahead of the Fukuoka sluggers.
With the victory, Daiei's Sadaharu Oh won his 1,000th game as a manager, a milestone reached by only 10 managers of Japanese professional baseball before him.
At Yahoo BB Stadium, Yoshitomo Tani and Roosevelt Brown smashed a pair of two-run homers to power the Orix BlueWave over the Lotte Marines 6-1.
Hidetaka Kawagoe struck out 10 and allowed one run and seven hits over eight innings to improve his record to 3-3. Lotte's Naoyuki Shimizu suffered the loss after giving up five runs on 11 hits.
Lotte snapped a four-game winning streak with the loss.
At Osaka Dome, Kazuhiro Wada shot a two-run homer over the center field wall to drive the Seibu Lions over the Kintetsu Buffalos 4-3.
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
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
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
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
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