Behind an outstanding effort from starter Tsao Chin-hui, the Brother Elephants blanked the Sinon Bulls in a 2-0 decision at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Saturday night to take Game 2 of the three-game weekend series against the Bulls.
The former Major Leaguer who began the season in a Brother uniform after spending five bumpy seasons with three different teams in the majors pitched 7-1/3 shutout innings of five-hit ball before leaving with a cramp in his calves to win his third game of the year.
Equaling the task with 1-2/3 innings of perfect relief was an Elephants bullpen that got a great outing from setup man Matt Perisho to finish the eighth before Lee Hao-ren retired the side in the ninth to keep the shutout intact.
Offensively for the victors, Chu Hong-seng claimed his second straight game-winning RBI with a clutch two-out single in the second that scored the runner from third to give the Elephants a 1-0 lead.
Taking the loss for the struggling Bulls, who have lost five in a row, was starter Alfredo Gonzalez who lasted just one batter into the second and was forced to leave with some discomfort in his throwing hand. He was charged with the loss nonetheless for allowing the Elephants’ the first run in the game.
LIONS 5, BEARS 3
The Uni-President Lions made history on Saturday night by topping the La New Bears in a 5-3 decision to become the first team in the league to collect 1,000 wins.
Slugger Wang Tzu-song got hold of an offering from Bears starter Wu Si-yo and tattooed it over the leftfield wall for his first homer of the season, a three-run shot that capped a four-run second of the home Cats.
That was more than ample for Lions starter Chu Wei-ming, who tossed 5-1/3 innings of two-run ball (only one earned) on four hits before his bullpen came to the rescue with 3-2/3 innings of one-run relief to preserve the fifth win of the year.
Trailing 2-4, the Bears rallied to fall within a run of the Lions in the top of the eighth with Chen Chin-fong’s league-leading 14th homer of the season, a solo shot off Lions reliever Tseng Yi-cheng, which made it 3-4. But that was as close as they got as the Lions answered with an insurance run in the bottom of the same inning to keep the margin at two all the way to the end.
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Polish partner Jan Zielinski on Saturday survived a tough 90-minute round-of-16 match to advance to the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the US Open and stay in contention for a third Grand Slam title, while Jannik Sinner stormed into the last 16 as fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a second New York triumph. Seventh seeds and Australian Open winners Hsieh and Zielinksi took 1 hour, 29 minutes to beat Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos and Santiago Gonzalez 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 10-6. Hsieh, 38, and Zielinski, 27, are eyeing their third Grand Slam title this year, after
HOMETOWN HERO: The Taichung Sports Bureau said it would award Lin NT$600,000 plus a NT$50,000 appearance award for her performance in Paris Taiwan’s Lin Tzu-yu and Tian Shiau-wen late on Saturday won the silver medal in the table tennis women’s doubles WD20 class at the Paris Paralympics, winning Taiwan’s second medal of this year’s games. The top-seeded duo missed the gold, losing to Australia’s Lei Li Na and Yang Qian in the 29-minute final in South Paris Arena 4. Lin and Tian struggled to adjust early in the match, losing the first two games 7-11 and 6-11. Although they fought back to win the third game 11-3 and took the lead in the fourth game, they were unable to take advantage of their game point
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an