Going the distance in his first start of the year, Luther Hackman pitched a two-hit beauty to help the Uni-President Lions beat the Brother Elephants 3-1 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The win not only gave the Cats a clean sweep in the three-game series, but also propelled them past the La New Bears for sole possession of the second-place spot in the standings.
Hampered by an injury that had sidelined him for nearly two months, Hackman made sure the wait was worthwhile for Lions fans as he pitched perfect ball through the fifth before giving up a leadoff double to the Elephants’ Wang Sheng-wei and the lone run in the game two batters later on a single by Yu Jau-ren in the sixth.
Hackman would pitch out of trouble in the inning with two quick outs and retire all but the next nine hitters he faced to win it convincing fashion.
Offensively for the Cats, shortstop Liu Yu-cheng’s 3-for-4 hitting with a pair of RBIs accounted for half of his team’s total run production. Red-hot slugger Marshall McDougall also drove in a run with a double in the sixth to add to his league-leading 41 hits this year.
Brother starter Orlando Roman actually pitched well enough for the win with eight decent innings of work allowing three runs (only two earned) on nine hits, while fanning three and walking two. But it was not meant to be for the American right-hander as he was outdone by a superior Hackman to drop his second game of the year.
BEARS 5, BULLS 1
A four-run sixth by the La New Bears proved to be the difference in the game as they roughed up the Sinon Bulls in a 5-1 final at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to claim the weekend series by a margin of 2-1.
It was the second straight win for the visiting Bears after their dramatic 5-4 win in a 12-inning marathon that lasted nearly five hours on Saturday night
The home Bulls greeted the Bears with a first-inning run when Chang Jien-ming led off the game with an infield single and scored three batters later on Chang Tai-shan’s RBI single to left off Bears starter Chris Mason.
The 1-0 would remain through the fifth with neither offense able to score against Mason and his counterpart Chang Geng-hao until a four-run sixth that gave the Bears the lead for good.
Picking up his league-best fifth win of the year was Mason as he improved to a 5-1 record while the loss was charged against Bulls starter Chang Geng-hao who suffered his first defeat of the year with four allowed runs in six innings of play.
No CPBL games are scheduled for today.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
RSS