The Lamigo Monkeys rode the red-hot bat of slugger Lin Chih-sheng, who homered for the fourth time in the past two days to baffle the Uni-President Lions 9-7 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to sweep the three-game set on the road.
“It was a great way to end the weekend,” Lin said, referring to his ninth-inning blast which came the day after his first career three-homer game the night before.
He is now four homers shy of the EDA Rhinos’ Kao Kuo-hui, whose 30 round-trippers are second to none in the league.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Neither starting pitcher managed to hold the opposing hitters in the early going, with Wang Yi-cheng of the Monkeys and the Lions’ Liao Wen-yang allowing five runs each through the fifth, before the Primates claimed their third lead of the game at 4-3 in the sixth when Wang Po-jung singled off Liao and scored two batters later on Lin Chih-ping’s liner.
The opportunistic Lamigo offense jumped all over the Lions’ pitching in the seventh with Chen Guan-ren’s solo shot leading the way, before Wang capped off the night with a three-run triple that gave the visitors a 8-3 lead.
Trailing by five at that point, the Cats got a pair of runs back in the seventh and the ninth to make it a two-run game and actually had the bases loaded in the ninth with one out before Monkeys closer Lin Po-yo fanned two in a row to strand three in a close finish.
BROTHERS 4, RHINOS 0
The Chinatrust Brothers made it two wins in a row by blanking the EDA Rhinos in a 4-0 shutout at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series.
Lin Wei-chu’s pinch-hit double off Rhinos starter Ni Fu-te with the runner on second broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the seventh, before Huang Shih-hao followed with an RBI single that scored Lin to make it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
That set up back-to-back solo blasts from Chang Chih-hao and Chiang Chih-hsien off reliever Shen Yu-chieh an inning later as the Brothers doubled their lead to conclude the scoring.
Chinatrust starter Bryan Woodall picked up win No. 3 since joining the team a month ago with eight brilliant innings of four-hit ball, before ace closer Chen Hung-wen pitched a scoreless ninth to keep the shutout intact.
“We didn’t do anything different today, it was just a great team win all around,” Woodall said after being named Most Valuable Player.
Falling victim to an anemic offense was Ni, who took a three-hit shutout one out into the seventh before succumbing to the Chinatrust hitters in a game he could have won on another night.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS