The Uni-President Lions prevailed over the CTBC Brothers 3-2 last night in the final game of Taiwan’s CPBL regular season, with the Lions claiming the second-half title, while the results from the past two days eliminated the Fubon Guardians and the Rakuten Monkeys from the playoffs.
Playing at home at the Tainan Municipal Stadium, Lions fans tossed orange ribbons to celebrate the win, which left their record at 32-1-27 through 60 games in the second half, the best among the four teams.
The second-half title guaranteed them a berth in the best-of-seven Taiwan Series, with Game 1 to be played on Saturday.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The Lions face the Brothers in the Taiwan Series, who secured a berth by winning the first-half title. The Brothers had the best record for the full regular season.
Last night’s result eliminated the Monkeys, ending their bid for a fourth consecutive title.
CTBC outfielder Chang Chih-hao hit a solo homer in the first frame, while Lions’ outfielder Su Chih-chieh blasted a solo shot in reply to make it 1-1 heading into the second.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The roaring Lions rattled CTBC’s Dominican lefty Jose de Paula in the sixth frame, with four consecutive batters reaching base on singles.
They grabbed two runs to take a 3-1 lead.
The Brothers got one back on two hits and a walk in the eighth inning, but did not score again.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Lions’ American righthander Teddy Stankiewicz pocketed the win. He took the mound in the third inning and shut down CTBC offense, giving up only one run on five hits, two walks, while striking out six over 5-2/3 innings.
“We faced very difficult obstacles down to the stretch and the fans gave us great support,” Lions manager Lin Yue-ping said after the game. “It was a night to remember, because we won the second-half title at home for our fans and we can celebrate together.”
On Friday it was do or die for the Fubon Guardians at home at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City.
They had to defeat the Lions to book a post-season berth.
The Lions needed the win on Friday and yesterday to claim the second-half title.
Vice President William Lai attended Friday’s game after promising fans he would be at the stadium to cheer on the visitors.
Lai is a keen supporter of the Tainan-based side. After he graduated from university, he worked as a doctor in the city and later was elected as a legislator representing Tainan before serving two terms as its mayor.
A pitching duel between the Lions’ American right-hander Tim Melville and the Brothers’ Dominican starter Henry Sosa dominated early proceedings.
Both got out of trouble with men on bases numerous times, as batters failed on clutch plays and stranded runners through to end of the sixth inning.
The Lions got a break at the top of the seventh.
With one out, shortstop Chen Chong-ting laid down a surprise bunt that Sosa tossed to first after rushing to collect, but first baseman Lin Yi-chuan could not complete the play, with the ball getting past him.
One out later, catcher Lin Yu-le slapped a single to put men on first base and second base.
Outfielder Chen Chieh-hsien hit a long fly-ball that bounced off the right-field wall for a double, knocking in two runs home for Lions to go in front.
Melville kept the Fubon batters off balance throughout and continued his stellar pitching through nine scoreless innings for the complete-game victory.
He yielded six hits and two walks, while striking out five and conceding no earned runs.
Fubon could not deliver a key hit and went down 2-0.
Cheerleaders and fans could be seen crying after the final out.
“We had our chances, but just could not get a hit at the crucial time,” Fubon manager Hong Yi-chong said after the game. “It was unfortunate for us not to score even a run, so we have to do better next year.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier