The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St Louis Cardinals 5-3 Sunday, putting the Pirates on the brink of reaching the second round of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The Pirates, who are in the post-season for the first time in 21 years, seized a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series.
Game 4 was scheduled for yesterday in Pittsburgh.
Photo: AFP
Russell Martin belted an RBI single in the eighth after Carlos Beltran had tied the game for St Louis with his second home run of the series in the top half of the eighth.
“When we gave up that go-ahead run on that homer by Beltran it could have been a post-season killer, but to come back and put up that run was huge for us,” Pirates outfielder Marlon Byrd said.
St Louis thrashed the upstart Pirates in Game 1, but Pittsburgh rebounded in a big way with a dominating 7-1 win in Game 2 to even the series.
Beltran’s solo homer off pitcher Mark Melancon made it 3-3, adding to the drama of the series that began with two lopsided contests in St Louis. It was the 16th playoff homer of his career, moving him past Babe Ruth to eighth in the all-time list.
Byrd hit a two-run single and Martin also had two RBI for the Pirates, who got six innings from starting pitcher Francisco Liriano. McCutchen had two hits and scored twice.
Liriano gave up a two-run Beltran single in the fifth and three hits overall. He also walked two and struck out five. Liriano was 3-0 in three starts against the Cardinals in the regular season.
Cardinals starter Joe Kelly came out with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning. The right-hander gave up three runs in just over five innings of work, allowing five hits and walking four. He also struck out five batters.
The Pirates were due to start right-hander Charlie Morton yesterday, while the Cards planned to turn to Michael Wacha.
In his final start of the regular season, Wacha came within an out of throwing a no-hitter.
“Tomorrow [Monday], the guys will be ready and we will put our best game out there,” St Louis manager Mike Matheny said.
In the other National League Division Series on Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers used a pair of four-run innings to clobber the Atlanta Braves 13-6 and take a 2-1 series lead.
Carl Crawford belted a three-run homer and scored three times, while Juan Uribe clubbed two-run homer and scored twice, and Yasiel Puig collected three hits, two RBIs and scored three runs for the Dodgers, who bounced back from Friday’s 4-3 loss.
The Dodgers’ potent offense made up for a problematic playoff debut by South Korean rookie pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin.
Ryu allowed four runs on six hits in just three innings of work.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS