Kuo Dai-yong's three-run homer over the leftfield wall capped a four-run first for the Chinatrust Whales as they toppled the Macoto Cobras in a rain-shortened 5-2 final in Sinjhuang on Saturday night for their third straight win this week.
The victory not only moved the Whales up to a second-place tie with the La New Bears in the latest standings, but also kept their playoff hopes alive with the regular season winding down in the final two weeks of play.
Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh also bounced back nicely from a disheartening one-run loss on Thursday that nipped a career-high six-game winning streak for the emerging lefty ace with five solid innings of two-run ball to get back on the winning track.
"It was a big result for us because it showed that we can still win it [the second half title] if we keep trying our best" Shen said after the game.
His team now trails the top-ranked President Lions by three-and-a-half games with 10 games remaining in the season.
The contest began with the Whales taking advantage of a struggling Chang Hsien-chih who had not won a start for the Cobras since Sept. 1 with four quick runs in the opening frame on a single, a double, a pair of walks and Kuo's towering blast.
Even though the Cobras answered with two runs off Shen in the top of the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Chen Yuan-jia and Wong Tsai-sheng, that turned out to be the only runs they scored before a downpour forced the home plate umpire to call the game at the end of the fifth.
Offensively for the Whales, Kao Jung-chiang also connected for a single and a double with an RBI to help complement Kuo's three-RBI performance.
As for the Cobras, who are guaranteed a spot in the upcoming postseason for winning the first half, despite having lost eight of their last ten, the outlook may be bleak if manager Wu Fu-lien cannot come up with a winning formula soon.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS