The President Lions clinched the first-half title with a convincing 5-0 shutout win over the Sinon Bulls at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Sunday, assuring themselves a spot in the postseason play that will include the second-half champs and the club with the third-best overall record.
Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen proved his worth as the highest-paid local player (NT$460,000 per month) in the league with seven innings of shutout ball on as many hits to lead his team to victory. The former number-one draft pick of the Lions (in 2003) has won 20 straight dating back to last season, making him the epitome consistency when it comes to rock-solid starts.
Yang Dong-yi’s RBI-single off Sinon starter Jose Espinal got the visiting cats on the board before Pan Wu-hsiung followed with a lining double to deep-center that scored two more runs to give their team a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the second.
After a quiet third, the Lions would added on a pair of runs in the fourth, courtesy of back-to-back errors by the Bulls defense this time, that made it 5-0.
And that was more than ample for Du Du as he cruised through the seventh before turning the game over to fellow reliever Ricky Stone who tossed two innings of scoreless relief to keep the shutout intact.
The Bulls’ best scoring chance in the game came during the bottom of the second when they loaded up the bases against Pan Wei-luen with two outs on three hits, but came away empty as the Lions ace calmly retired the Bulls’ Lin Tsong-nan to end the inning unharmed.
Suffering the tough loss in a four-hit outing was Espinal who allowed five runs (three earned) over six innings of work in his third defeat of the season as he fell to a 2-3 mark.
T-REX 3, BEARS 2
Lin “Wild Hog” Hong-yuan’s pinch-hit single to left scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth as the dmedia T-Rex overcame a 1-2 deficit to top the La New Bears 3-2 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Sunday to snap a three-game losing skid.
Wang Chuan-jia’s solo homer off Bears starter Hsu Yu-wei gave the T-Rex an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second before the Bears answered with Huang “Easy” Long-yi’s two-run blast off dmedia starter Chen Jien-fu in the top of the third to his team ahead 2-1.
The Bears lead would last all but an inning as the T-Rex battled back with the tying run from Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien’s second homer in as many days to tie the game at 2-all, which lasted until the eighth before Lin’s game-winning swing.
Picking up his first win of the season was Lee Ming-jin who pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth before fellow closer Nathan Bland sealed it with a hitless ninth.
The usually potent Bears offense was held to two meager runs on five hits in a game that was a defensive struggle for both squads.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946