Typhoon Morakot might have flooded Taiwan with torrential rainfall over the weekend, but it did not drench the spirit of baseball as the CPBL managed to squeeze in a game at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Sunday afternoon, with the La New Bears roughing up the Uni-President Lions in a rain-shortened 13-4 final.
Homers played a big part in the game, accounting for all but five of the 17 total runs, with the ball carrying extremely well because of the strong breeze from Morakot.
Lions starter Chu Wei-ming took a battering, with Lin Chih-sheng picking up where he left off last Thursday by nailing his league-leading 22nd homer of the season in the top of the first to give the Bears a quick 3-0 lead.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Pan Chung-wei made it 4-0 with his fifth blast of the year. Pan would end up with two homers on the day and five RBIs, tying his career-high in both homers and RBIs in a single game.
After Lin Chih-ping’s one-run single put the Bears ahead 5-0 in the second, Pan drove in his second run of the game with a single to deep-right.
Newcomer Jacob Cruz then joined the home-run parade with his first round-tripper of the season: a two-run shot off Chu that made it 8-0 through the third.
The Bears tacked on three more runs in the fourth, courtesy of an RBI triple by Lin Chih-sheng and Pan’s second homer of the game to blow it wide open at 11-0.
Held scoreless through the fourth, the Lions finally got on the board in the top of the fifth with Pan Wu-hsiung sending an offering from Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung over the left-field wall for a grand slam.
After the Bears put up two more runs to lead 13-4 in the bottom of the fifth, the light drizzle turned into a steady downpour, forcing the game officials to end the contest after the sixth, giving the Bears their third straight victory.
Hsu picked up the win, taking the shutout into the fifth before giving up the grand slam in a six-hit effort.
Counterpart Chu allowed 11 runs on 14 hits over four frames.
July’s Pitcher of the Month looked nothing like the hurler who was last month 2-0 in two starts and four relief appearances, with a miniscule ERA of 1.77.
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
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS