Kao Wei's sloppy handling of a routine grounder that led to a poor throw to first allowed the winning run to score from third in the bottom of the ninth for the La New Bears as they edged past the Macoto Cobras 8-7 in Kaohsiung on Friday evening for their fourth straight victory.
The normally sure-handed Cobras third baseman -- who leads the league with the fewest errors committed among all active third basemen with 12 errors in 246 chances -- failed to field the ball cleanly and was forced to hurry his throw to first. The throw sailed wide, enabling the Bears runner on third to easily score the game-winning run.
The win not only extended the Bears' winning streak to four, but more importantly kept their title aspirations alive as they trailed the top-ranked President Lions by two games with seven remaining in the regular season.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Behind a stellar start by lefty ace Hsu Yu-wei, the Bears built a commanding 7-0 lead after five innings of play, highlighted by Raul Gonzalez's two-run homer in the third and Shih Chih-wei's two-run single with two outs in the fifth.
The tide would turn against Hsu after he three-hit the Cobras over six shutout innings, as Chen Yuan-jia and Huang Shih-hao opened the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles.
Hsu exited and in came Hsu Chih-hua, who did not fare any better as he gave up two more singles to score the Cobras' first run in the game before they tacked on four more in the same inning to trim the Bears lead to 7-5.
The Cobras would score again in the eighth on a two-out single by Kuo Ming-ren to make it 7-6 before tying things up at 7-all in the top of the ninth on Huang's opposite-field single, before losing the heartbreaker on Kao's miscue.
Picking up the win for the Bears was reliever Huang Jung-chung, who pitched his team out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth despite allowing the Cobras to score the tying run in the ninth.
Pocketing the loss was Cobras reliever Lee Ming-jin, who allowed the unearned run to score in the bottom of the ninth for his fourth setback of the season.
Elephants 5, Lions 3
A solid effort by a stingy bullpen cooled off the previously red-hot Lions' offense to give the Elephants a 5-3 win in Douliou on Friday, halting the Lions' seven-game winning streak.
Brother starter Wu Bao-shien kept the underdogs in the game by allowing just three runs to a potent Lions lineup that had averaged over 9.4 runs per game over a seven-game stretch through the fifth before turning the game over to his bullpen.
Wang Jing-li tossed a scoreless sixth despite loading up the bases on a single and two walks, Joey Dawley blanked the Lions over one-and-one-third innings and Todd Moser wrapped it up by recording the final five outs in the game to secure Wu's first win of the year.
Offensively for the Elephants, the night belonged to game-MVP Chen Rei-cheng, whose two-run double sparked a three-run third for his team as it took a rare 4-0 lead.
Leadoff man Huang Cheng-wei also had his second three-hit game of the year by going 3-for-5 to improve his average to an even .300 for the year.
Tagged with his fifth loss of the year was Lions starter Chang Chih-chiang, who did not look particularly sharp with five runs on eleven hits over six innings of work.
The fifth-year submariner out of the National Taiwan College of Physical Education has lost four of his last six starts to potentially jeopardize his starting role.
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
EL CLASSICO: La Liga champions Real Madrid would face Barcelona in the Super Cup final tomorrow. Barca secured their final spot after a 2-0 win over Bilbao on Wednesday Real Madrid would chase a record-equaling 14th Spanish Super Cup title in the final against Barcelona after second-half goals by Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo helped them to a 3-0 win over Mallorca in the semi-finals on Thursday. England midfielder Bellingham broke the deadlock after the hour mark with a low shot into the middle of the goal before Mallorca defender Martin Valjent’s own goal doubled the lead in stoppage time followed by a Rodrygo strike from close range. Spanish champions Real are to play Barcelona for the trophy tomorrow after goals by Gavi and Lamine Yamal earned Barca a 2-0 win over
RSS