CTBC Brothers starter Cheng Hao-chun on Wednesday night endured another early meltdown, exiting after recording just one out in a 17-2 home loss to the Fubon Guardians that echoed his rough outing against Japan at the World Baseball Classic in March.
At Tokyo Dome on March 6, the right-hander allowed eight runs in 1-2/3 innings against Samurai Japan, with all the damage coming in the second inning.
On Wednesday, he lasted only one-third of an inning after giving up nine runs at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The Brothers surrendered 13 runs in the opening inning, setting a franchise record for most runs allowed in a frame and marking the fourth time in CPBL history that a team has given up at least 13 runs in an inning.
The CPBL record is 14 runs allowed in one inning, set by the Jungo Bears against the Wei Chuan Dragons on March 28, 1994.
Cheng opened the game by allowing four consecutive singles and one run before striking out Dai Pei-feng for the first out.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
However, with the bases still loaded, Cheng failed to retire any of the next five batters he faced, issuing three walks and allowing two more singles as the Guardians built a seven-run lead.
The offensive outburst continued after the Brothers replaced Cheng with Yu Chien, who gave up another walk and four straight hits, including a triple by Wang Nian-hao, before finally recording the third out of the inning.
The Brothers answered with two runs in the bottom of the first, but failed to score again for the rest of the night.
After the game, Wang, who went 3-for-4 with a walk, said the Guardians fed off their early offensive rhythm and that he tried not to overthink their at-bats.
“Seeing everyone keep getting hits, I just thought the team was really locked in tonight,” Wang said. “Once I got up there, I didn’t want to think too much. If I saw a pitch I liked, I just swung.”
Cheng, the 2023 CPBL Rookie of the Year, took his second loss of the season after allowing nine earned runs. His ERA rose to 6.17.
The defeat was the Brothers’ third straight and left them last in the six-team league at 9-21-1, the only CPBL club still below 10 wins after 31 games. They trailed the fifth-place Rakuten Monkeys by five games.
The Guardians extended their winning streak to three games and improved to 16-13, trailing the first-placed Dragons by one game and the second-placed Uni-President Lions by half a game.
Also on Wednesday, the Lions edged the Dragons 2-1 and the Monkeys defeated the TSG Hawks 3-1.
Last night at Kaohsiung’s Chengcing Lake Baseball Stadium, the Hawks beat the Monkeys 3-2 with a walk-off single from Wu Nien-ting in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS