“This one will be for skipper Hsu,” EDA Rhinos captain Hu Chin-lung said at the pre-Taiwan Series press conference in Taipei yesterday afternoon as the team aim to claim a title that would be dedicated to former EDA Rhinos head coach Hsu Sheng-ming, whose legendary career and life came to an abrupt end in August when he suffered a heart attack.
With bragging rights up for grabs and a chance to send Hsu off on a high note, the Rhinos open this year’s Taiwan Series against the Uni-President Lions at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium this afternoon in a showdown between the first-half and second-half champions.
This year’s annual Fall Classic, the first ever for the Rhinos whose predecessors, the Sinon Bulls made it to the Taiwan Series on six previous occasions to amass a 2-4 record, and the 13th for the Lions, who have come away with eight titles in their previous 12 attempts, will feature two potent lineups that have humbled the opposing pitching over the course of the regular season.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Leading the Rhinos offense are home-run threats Lin Yi-chuan and Kao Gui-hui, whose 32 combined homers and 144 RBIs are second to none in an age where hitters have quietly surpassed the pitchers to win the hearts of most fans.
Even though the Lions may not have the top two punchers in the league offensively, slugger Chang “OEO” Tai-shan and his league-best 90 RBIs in the regular season still poses a serious enough threat against the opposing pitchers, not to mention the long-ball help that he will get from fellow sluggers Deng Chih-wei and Kao “Green Tank” Guo-ching, with 16 combined blasts, providing ample firepower for Lions head coach Chen Lien-hung.
“We are ready to give it our best shot with the amount of preparation we’ve put in,” Chen said.
“At this stage of the season, having a stronger mental game is more important than being technically sound,” Chen added, referring to his team’s superior post-season experience compared with that of the Rhinos.
While the scales may tip in favor of the Rhinos offensively, the Lions enjoy a decisive advantage on the mound with veteran righty Nelson Figueroa heading a starting rotation that is solid and deep.
The last time Figueroa pitched in the Taiwan Series for the Lions he was credited with three of the Lions’ four wins in their dramatic series against the La New Bears in 2007.
As for the Rhinos, head coach Tseng Chih-chan will need to rely heavily on Game 1 starter Matt Torra and probable Game 2 starter Nick Green to give him at least six good innings in order to keep the workload of the Rhinos bullpen at a manageable level.
“We are gonna need a lot of offense to pull it off because we know [the Lions] can definitely score a lot of runs on anyone,” Tseng said.
The Lions will be looking to win the all-important Game 1, because they have gone on to win all five of the Taiwan Series in which they started with a win.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
RSS