More than 20,000 eager fans are expected to pack the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium this afternoon to witness the opener of this year’s Taiwan Series, where the hosts, the Lamigo Monkeys, will take on the Uni-President Lions in a showdown for the Chinese Professional Baseball League title.
This year’s “Fall Classic” features a potent Monkeys attack that bombarded the opposing pitching during the regular-season with three of the league’s top five home run hitters — Lin Hong-yu (22), Lin Chih-sheng (18) and Chung Cheng-yo (15) — whose homers have ranked them among the most feared long-ball trio in league history.
Facing the unforgiving Monkeys lineup is a Lions rotation anchored by US right-hander Dan Reichert, Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen and Wang Jing-ming, who will likely start the first three games for skipper Lu Wen-sheng.
The Big Cats have not been able to consistently use their other two foreign pitchers, Ryan Glynn and Seth Etherton, because of injuries. That means they might need to go to their bullpen earlier than Lu would like, which could be a problem since Wang, who is more comfortable at mid-inning relief, will likely be the No. 3 starter, leaving Hsu Yu-wei and Chen Yi-cheng to take up the slack before they can get to setup man Kao Jien-san in the eighth and ace closer Lin Yueh-ping in the ninth to put the game away.
Compared with the Lions, the Monkeys have the advantage in pitching, with all three of their foreign hurlers available, starting with staff ace Ken Ray who went the distance against the Brother Elephants for manager Hung Yi-chung in their season finale a week ago to clinch the second-half title.
Newcomers Brian Corey and Shane Youman will follow Ray’s lead to start the second and third games, although Hung has not decided who will go first.
While the Primates might enjoy the advantage in starting pitching, their regular closer Hsu Ming-jeh has not been reliable after setting a new mark for most saves in the first half of the season, picking up only one save in his past three games with a loss charged against him over the same span. His success as the last line of defense could be the difference late in the game or late in the series should they stretch it to six or seven games.
Offensively for the Lions, home run threat Kao Guo-ching’s season-long race against the Monkeys’ Lin Hong-yu that ended on a 22-all tie, carries into the postseason as they lead their respective offense in total run production.
The Lions will also need Chang “OEO” Tai-shan to have a good series at the plate to provide some protection for Kao.
The all-important Game 1 sees the home Monkeys send Ray to the mound to take on the Lions’ Seth Etherton, whose starting assignment was announced in a press conference in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
The opening pitch is scheduled for 5pm this afternoon.
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