Esmerling Vasquez tossed six innings of two-run ball and Fang Keh-wei homered on a three-for-five night with three RBIs as the EDA Rhinos roughed up the Uni-President Lions 10-2 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series on the road against the defending champions.
It was the first win of the season for the Dominican native, who spent four seasons in the major leagues in the US, before agreeing to terms with the Rhinos at the start of this season.
The righty also fanned six, while walking one in an impressive outing to prove his worth for the Rhinos.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Offensively for the victors, the night belonged to Fang, who made the most of his second start behind the home plate for the Rhinos, who have won three straight after starting off the season with a dismal 0-3 record.
After two quiet innings, the Rhinos were the first to strike against Lions starter Nelson Figueroa with Fang’s solo blast in the top of the third to make it 1-0.
That proved to be the beginning of a rough night for the Lions veteran, who ended up with the loss and six runs charged against him (four earned) on 10 hits to drop to 0-2 for the season.
Trailing by six after five frames, the Cats finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Liu Fu-hao and Kuo Dai-chi connected off Vasquez with runners in scoring position to avoid a shutout at home.
MONKEYS 1, ELEPHANTS 0
The contest between the Lamigo Monkeys and the Chinatrust Brother Elephants at the Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei was suspended in the bottom of the fifth with the Monkeys leading 1-0 due to heavy rain.
Play will resume at 2pm this afternoon in the first game of a double-header, before the two squads take the field again for the second game at 5:05pm.
Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series is a global sports event, it is particularly big in Japan. Fans from Ohtani’s home nation bought more World Series tickets for the first two games than from anywhere outside North America, ticket broker StubHub said. Dodger Stadium was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ showdown with the New York Yankees. “Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers drew big international appeal, especially from his home country of Japan,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said. “At the beginning of the season, buyers from
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