Kobayashi Ryokan pitched eight solid innings of one-run ball and Chen Guan-ren went a perfect 4-for-4 with a pair of RBIs as the Brother Elephants trounced the Sinon Bulls 6-1 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday night.
The Japanese hurler, who improved to 7-6 for the season with the win, took a four-hit shutout two outs into the eighth before surrendering a walk and back-to-back singles for the lone Sinon run in the game.
Chen set a new career mark for most four-hit games in a season with his fifth four-hit outing of the year so far, making the ball look as big as a grapefruit on a night he could do no wrong.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Lin Ming-hsien’s bases-loaded groundout got the Elephants on the board in the bottom of the second before Chen’s RBI-single made it 3-0 in favor of the Elephants.
They would add to the lead by two in the fifth on a two-run single by Chen Rei-chen before Chen Guan-ren’s liner to left in the sixth scored the Elephants’ sixth run of the ball game.
That meant more than enough run support for Kobayashi as the Elephants cruised past the Bulls for the win.
T-REX 13, LIONS 9
Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien’s grand slam blew an otherwise close game wide open in the top of the ninth as the dmedia T-Rex topped the President Lions 13-9 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday.
Before all was said and done, the rain-delayed contest — which ran more than five-and-a-half hours and did not end until early yesterday morning — featured 22 combined runs on 28 hits between the two clubs.
Trailing 8-13 following Hsieh’s grand slam, the home Lions managed to score a run without getting a hit when dmedia closer Hector Almonte walked three to load up the bases before Kuo Dai-chi drew the fourth walk of the inning off Hsu Chu-jien to force in a run.
That was as close as the Lions got as Chen Lien-hong, who represented the tying run at the plate, popped a lazy fly ball to right with the bases juiced for the game-ending out.
Picking up the wild win was dmedia reliever Lee Ming-jin, who gave up a run on two hits over three innings of work to beat the Lions’ Kao Jien-san. Kao allowed a run on three hits over two innings for his third loss of the season.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
RSS