Close plays dominated the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) action on Wednesday, with the Chinatrust Whales edging past the Uni-President Lions 4-3 in extra innings at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium and the Sinon Bulls eking out an identical 4-3 win over the dmedia T-Rex, also in extra innings, at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium.
Wilton Veras’ chopper to first with a runner on third scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th for the marine creatures and Steve Watkins pitched a scoreless 12th to cap four innings of masterful relief to pick up his sixth win of the year.
The home cats struck first with a pair of runs off Whales starter Nee Fu-deh on a Whales error in the bottom of the opening frame to lead it 2-0 before the visitors returned the favor two innings later on Kuo Dai-yong’s two-run double to tie things up at 2-all.
The two teams traded a run in the sixth on a solo homer by Veras off Lions reliever Shen Bo-chang and an RBI-double by the Lions’ Liu Fu-hao that made it 3-3, a score that lasted well into the extra innings before the Whales’ heroic 12th.
BULLS 4, T-REX 3, 10 INNINGS
Miscues by the defense cost the dmedia T-Rex the game on Wednesday as they gave up the winning run to the Sinon Bulls on a walk-off error for a 4-3 defeat in Taichung.
With the game tied at 3-3 and two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Chang Jien-ming lined a bullet shot to the right-center gap for an apparent triple and scored on a wild throw to third by the dmedia defense to win it for the home Bulls.
The costly errors wasted an otherwise valiant comeback by the T-Rex, who overcame a 3-1 deficit with a run each in the seventh and eighth inning to force a 3-3 tie late in the game before the letdown in the extra inning.
Earning his second win of the season with 2-1/3 innings of scoreless relief was Sinon rookie Tsai Ming-jin, who allowed a lone hit to the last eight batters he faced, beating his counterpart Yen Chih-chung.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner and Kody Clemens homered on Wednesday as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 9-6 and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. Castellanos had three hits and scored three times. Bryson Stott also had three hits and Brandon Marsh drove in three runs for the Phillies, who on Monday claimed their first National League East title in 13 years. Coupled with the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia secured the bye and home-field advantage in the NL Division Series. The Phillies owned the tiebreaker with the Brewers after winning the season series against 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
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who