Yang Jien-fu pitched seven strong innings of one-run ball and Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan drove in a pair of runs on a two-for-four night to lead the Sinon Bulls past the Chinatrust Whales in a narrow 3-2 home win in Taichung on Thursday evening.
The former ace of the Sinon staff, who had been bothered by a series of nagging injuries all season long, returned to his old form by hitting more than 140kph with his fastball and getting his nasty slider to break hard and late to keep the Whales hitters off balance.
"It's really coming around for me now; I am hitting the spots that I hadn't been hitting before and it's paying off," Yang said after the game.
The Prince collected his team-best 74th RBI of the year with a fifth-inning double that ended up being the game-winning run.
The contest began with the home Bulls taking it to Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh right away with a pair of RBI singles by Chang and Chen Chih-wei in the bottom of the first for a quick 2-0 lead.
The Bulls would up their lead by one in the fifth after three scoreless innings in a 3-0 game. The Whales finally got on the board in the sixth on Chen Yong-tseh's solo home run off Yang to make it 3-1.
Trailing by a deuce with the top of the order due up against Bulls ace closer Kuo Yong-chih in the ninth, the Whales managed to score once more on Hsu Ren-jeh's solo blast to left to make it 3-2. But that was as close as they got as Kuo quickly settled in to record the final three outs of the game to pocket his league-leading 13th save of the season.
Yang earned his fourth straight win in as many starts by scattering four hits over seven innings to improve to seven wins for the year.
Suffering the tough loss was Shen, who allowed three runs on eight hits in four-and-one-third innings of work and saw his seven-game winning streak came to a crashing end as his offense failed to give him the run support that he had been getting over the past two months.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS