Taking three of four games in their series play against the Brother Elephants last week, the Sinon Bulls have reclaimed the top spot in the league standings.
After losing the series opener to the Elephants in front of a home crowd in Taichung, the defending champs bounced back with three solid wins in a row against the nation's most popular baseball team.
Leading the way for the Bulls in those three wins were starters Jeff Andra of the US, Osvaldo Martinez of the Dominican Republic, and local boy Hsu Wen-pin, who combined to hold a powerful Elephants lineup to a lone run on eleven hits in 21 innings of stellar performance. In Martinez's case last Friday, it took the nine-year fireballer just 97 pitches to turn in a two-hit, complete-game shutout.
PHOTO: SBL
Offensively for the Bulls, their 5.3 runs-per-game average was more than ample in dealing with the troubled Elephants.
Like the Bulls, the Chinatrust Whales' week started off with Thursday's tough 4-3 loss in the extra innings against the La New Bears when normally sure-handed closer Dario Veras failed to preserve a 3-2 lead by surrendering a two-out, run-scoring double in the eighth to make it a 3-all tie and the game-clinching solo home run to the Bears' Victor Rodriguez in the tenth.
The Whales would return the favor in a close 3-2 win the following night when third baseman Chen Jia-hung's sacrifice fly to deep-right in the bottom of the sixth was the difference in the game, thanks to a perfect eighth and ninth by set-up man Tseng Jau-hao and Veras respectively.
Back-to-back homers served up by the Bears' Jose Vargas in the bottom of the eighth transformed a tight, 6-all tie into a 9-6 Whales' win and made a winner out of the Whales' rookie reliever Shen Yu-jeh, whose two innings of scoreless relief gave him victory number two in the young, yet exciting season.
The promising rookie, who played college ball at Japan's Beppu University, already has a pair of holds to his credit in addition to the two victories under his belt.
Looking ahead in this week's action, the top two squads in the league (the Bulls and the Whales) will meet head-to-head for the first time this season in a crucial three-game series, beginning with tomorrow night's contest in Hsinchu before Saturday's match in Tienmu and Sunday's series finale at Hsinchuang.
How well can the Bulls' staff contain the Whales' top run producer Nelson Castro (batting .333 with eight RBIs in six games thus far) and their ability to hit off the starters of the Whales will most likely determine which club will remain atop the standings come next Monday.
Also worth a visit to the ballpark this week is the four-game series between the President Lions and the Bears, starting with Tuesday's series opener in Kaohsiung.
All eyes will be on the new-and-improved Lions offense with its top RBI man in Israel Alcantara, whose ten RBIs in six games could set the Dominican native on pace to over 150 RBIs for the year.
Alcantara will not be the only man showing off his bat this week because the hosts' Victor Rodriguez with his league-leading .565 batting average and three homers, will make sure that the Lions' pitchers would not get away with many mistakes when facing the US slugger.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS