The Uni-President Lions roughed up the EDA Rhinos 16-5 at Kaohsiung’s Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium last night, moving into double digits for the second straight game.
The win not gave the Cats a rare series triumph and a potential sweep with a victory this afternoon, but also brought them out of the cellar as the Rhinos slipped to last in the standings.
Homers by Chen Yung-chi and Chou Guan led a 17-hit Lions attack, with the former bringing home three in the opening frame and the latter leading off what turned out to be a six-run seventh.
Photo provided by the CPBL
The Lions were not the only ones hitting long, as Rhinos slugger Kao Kuo-hui also went deep for his 34th home run of the year to break the record for most homers in a single season (33) set by the Lions’ Tilson Brito in 2007.
With his offense spotting him nine runs through the third, Lions starter Chiang Cheng-yen cruised through the contest with relative ease, allowing three runs on four hits over six innings of work to pick up the win and improve his season mark to 6-2.
Dealt his fourth loss of the year was Rhinos starter Tsai Ming-chin, who fell victim to a deadly error by the Rhinos defense that led to four unearned runs. Tsai allowed a total of nine runs (five earned) on as many hits over 2-2/3 innings.
MONKEYS 9, BROTHERS 7
Liu Shih-hao’s timely double with runners on second and third scored the tiebreaking run in the top of the 10th as the Lamigo Monkeys defeated the top-ranked Chinatrust Brothers at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City, clinching the weekend series.
The clutch double completed a valiant comeback by the Primates that saw them rally from as many as six down to tie the game in the seventh before tacking on two in the 10th.
Five quick runs off a struggling Lamigos right-hander Wang Yi-cheng over the first two innings gave the Brothers an early 5-1 lead, which they promptly extended to 7-1 after three innings.
Those were the only runs Chinatrust scored as the Primates pitching held its ground, while the offense chipped away at the deficit, highlighted by homers from Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu and Chen Chun-hsiu.
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West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
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