Game 4 of the CPBL’s Taiwan Series between the Rakuten Monkeys and the CTBC Brothers yesterday was postponed to today, after incessant rain over the past few days flooded the field at Taoyuan Baseball Stadium.
The Brothers on Tuesday kept their hopes of a repeat championship alive with a 2-0 win over the Rakuten Monkeys in Game 3.
The reigning champions seized the shutout victory before a crowd of 37,088 at Taipei Dome, snapping the Monkeys’ five-game post-season winning streak this year. They still trail 1-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Photo: CNA
Brothers starting pitcher Jesus Vargas was named Most Valuable Player after tossing 6-2/3 scoreless innings on just 68 pitches.
Vargas, 27, joined the Brothers in the second half of the season and did not face the Monkeys during the regular season. He started two of his three appearances and finished with a 3.72 ERA over 19-1/3 innings.
The Brothers’ starter did a good job locating his pitches on the edges of the strike zone, Monkeys manager Kenji Furukubo said, adding that he regretted that all the team’s scoring opportunities were thwarted by the Brothers’ solid defense.
Photo: CNA
A DAZN commentator attributed much of Vargas’ success to the Monkeys’ unfamiliarity with his pitching. Although the Monkeys made contact often, their swings proved fruitless, as they failed to time their swings effectively.
Vargas found himself in trouble only once, in the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Monkeys put runners on the corners with one out.
He escaped the jam thanks to first baseman Hsu Chi-hung, who caught a sharp line drive by Chen Chen-wei and tagged first base with his glove before the runner could return, completing a double play.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS