The struggling EDA Rhinos bounced back from back-to-back blowout losses to the Uni-President Lions with a 5-2 triumph in the weekend’s finale at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Kaohsiung last night to avoid being swept by the Cats at home.
The win also nipped a five-game slide for the Rhinos, who properly celebrated slugger Kao Kuo-hui’s record-extending 35th homer of the season one day after he had broken the eight-year-old mark for the most homers in a season (33) set by the Lions’ Tilson Brito in 2007.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling and tremendous honor to be able surpass a great player like [Tilson Brito],” Kao said after the game.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
The 30-year-old soft-spoken slugger has his eyes on the 40-homer plateau with 11 games remaining in the regular season.
Hu Chin-lung’s two-run double capped a three-run second inning for the Rhinos, who greeted Lions starter Wang Ching-ming with three extra-base hits (all doubles) in the inning to set the tone early in the game.
The Rhinos tacked on another run in the third on the strength of Kao’s solo blast off Wang that made it 4-0, before plating their fifth on a sacrifice fly by Kao in the bottom of the seventh.
Rhinos starter Andy Sisco pitched perfect ball through three and took a one-hit shutout two outs into the eighth, before giving up a two-run home run to the Lions’ Chu Yuan-hsun to lose the shutout bid.
The American lefty earned his fifth victory of the season along with the Most Valuable Player honor for his gutsy effort.
Taking the loss was Wang, who allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits over six frames, while fanning seven and walking none in a contest that would have been closer if it were not for Sisco’s spectacular effort.
MONKEYS 11, BROTHERS 6
Homers by Lin Chih-sheng and Kuo Yen-wen sparked an eight-run scoring spree from the third inning through the fifth for the Lamigo Monkeys as they took a sizeable lead and held off a late-game rally by the top-ranked Chinatrust Brothers to escape with an 11-6 win at a rain-drenched Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night.
The victory gave the Primates a clean sweep in the three-game series that saw them humble the Brothers’ pitchers by plating nearly 10 runs per game to pull within 3.5 games of the league leaders.
Pat Misch made the most of his seventh start with the Monkeys by tossing one-run ball on two hits over six innings to pick up win No. 5.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS