Close plays dominated the first two days of action this week, with the Uni-President Lions topping the EDA Rhinos 5-4 in Kaohsiung on Monday, and the Chinatrust Brothers rallying past the Lamigo Monkeys in a 7-5 comeback in Taichung on Tuesday evening to bring more drama to fans across the nation.
The Cats rode the right arm of starter Justin Thomas, who took a three-hit shutout one out into the bottom of the eighth before surrendering a run to lose his shutout bid. Even though he went on to pocket the win, it was anything but a breeze as the at-home Rhinos put up three runs in the bottom of the ninth against Warner Madrigal on the merit of a three-run blast by Cheng Da-hung, before the Lions closer retired the final two Rhinos hitters to preserve the narrow road thriller for his club.
That set up Tuesday night’s impressive comeback by the Brothers, who batted around the order in an explosive four-run eighth to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 lead for the eventual win.
In a contest that featured four lead-changes, the Primates drew first blood by cashing in on a wild Bobby Blevins, who gave up a leadoff single to the Brothers’ Chan Chih-yao, before issuing a pair of walks and a wild pitch to cough up the first Primates run.
After back-to-back solo homers by Chang Chih-hao and Jaime Pedroza helped the Brothers take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth, the road Primates connected on three straight two-out base hits, highlighted by Kuo Yen-wen’s two-run single, to plate three runs that made it 5-3.
The score remained 5-3 for the next three innings, until the men in the golden uniforms baffled two Monkeys relievers with six hits in a four-run eighth to retake the lead for good.
Failure to protect the lead on the part of the Primates bullpen in Tuesday night’s game, along with the early ineffectiveness of Rhinos closer Luo Chia-jen (7.14 ERA through Wednesday) and Brothers closer Luo Kuo-hua (6.23 ERA through Wednesday), left many wondering if the league is missing the presence of a dominant closer that it has been accustomed to in the past.
While the early success enjoyed by the hitters are apparent in the number of high-scoring games (seven runs or more by a team) reaching 63 percent (22 of 35) in the first month of play, it has been a while since the league did not have at least one hurler who can take over the game in a save situation to finish off the game like a capable closer should.
It might be too early to tell whether the role of the closer is being marginalized in the league at this point, but the need to have a pitcher who can serve the role will only escalate if the managers wish to sleep better at night for the remainder of the season.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Robin Smith, the batter who shone for England in a period when it was beaten regularly in Test cricket, has died. He was 62. Smith’s family said in a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he died unexpectedly at his home in Perth, Australia, on Monday. No cause was given. He played 62 Tests for England from 1988 to 1996, scoring 4,236 runs at an average of 43.67 with nine centuries. His signature shot was the square cut. Smith also played in 71 one-day internationals and was part of England’s squad who reached the 1992 ICC World Cup final. His unbeaten
SSC Napoli on Sunday joined AC Milan at the top of Serie A after winning 1-0 at title rivals AS Roma, as Inter kept pace with the leading pair by beating Pisa SC 2-0. David Neres stroked home the only goal of a feisty game in the 36th minute at the Stadio Olimpico, ending a blistering counterattack with a calm finish which put Napoli on 28 points. Napoli are behind Milan on goal-difference, and just one point ahead of both Roma and Inter in a tight scudetto battle in which Antonio Conte’s team are to host Juventus at the weekend. “To come to
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