Fernandez Echavarria Pedro Arsenio on Saturday gave up just one run in eight innings as the Rakuten Monkeys beat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 in Tainan to tie up the best-of-five CPBL playoff series at one game apiece.
Although Saturday’s game at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium was technically the first in the series, the Lions earned a one-game advantage after clinching the first-half season title.
In the nine CPBL playoff rounds held since 1998, the team winning Game 1 of the best-of-five series has advanced to the Taiwan Series.
Photo courtesy of the Rakuten Monkeys via CNA
This year’s winners are to face the Wei Chuan Dragons in the best-of-seven Taiwan series. The dragons earned an automatic berth by winning the second-half season title and holding the best full-season record.
Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu praised his players for showing toughness in the face of the Lions’ automatic 1-0 lead, crediting starting pitcher Arsenio for his confidence on the mound.
“He displayed great dominance after taking a 10-day break. He attacked the strike zone aggressively and made the batters swing and strike several times. So I decided to let him continue pitching even after the eighth inning,” Tseng said.
Arsenio yielded only two runs on six hits over his eight-inning start, with a solo shot by Su Chih-chieh in the bottom of the fourth the only earned run.
The right-handed pitcher was pulled in the bottom of the ninth without retiring a batter after he walked Su and yielded a single to Chen Yung-chi.
The 29-year-old Dominican said he regretted not continuing to attack the strike zone as he did in the first eight innings, but praised the depth of the Monkeys’ bullpen for weathering the final inning.
The Lions suffered a blow in the fourth inning when designated hitter Lin An-ko was carried off the field after fouling a ball off the outside of his left knee.
In a post-game interview, Lions manager Lin Yue-ping said that the injury was likely to rule Lin out for the rest of the series, meaning a bigger role for Chiu Chih-cheng.
For last night’s game in Taoyuan, 11,000 tickets had been sold as of Saturday, making it the fifth CPBL challenger game with more than 10,000 spectators.
“Now we’ve evened the series, I hope our fans will pack the stadium and cheer for us,” Tseng said.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
RSS