Capitalizing on three errors by the La New Bears defense, the Brother Elephants scored a pair of unearned runs en route to a 3-0 shutout win at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Sunday night to win their three-game series 2-1.
Starter Liao “the Golden Submarine” Yu-cheng was not at his best, allowing at least one La New batter to reach base safely in all but one of the seven innings he threw. He nonetheless managed to keep the Bears off the board, with the help of a defense that turned two double plays to earn his ninth win of the season.
Elephants batter Huang Cheng-wei’s RBI groundout in the third broke a scoreless tie before Chen Rei-cheng drew a bases-loaded walk off Bears starter Jose Silva, giving the men in the gold a 2-0 lead.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Wang Jin-yong’s liner to right with a runner on third dropped for a single that made it 3-0 in favor of the Elephants in the sixth and that was all they needed. Setup man Matt Perisho pitched a scoreless eighth before closer Ryan Cullen worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to convert his sixth straight save opportunity.
Failure to come up with timely hits proved costly for the Bears as they batted a futile 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, including two double plays, to strand a total of 14 runners.
Silva pitched well enough to win in his Taiwan debut, with a pair of unearned runs on six hits over five frames, but lacked the necessary run support in his first loss of the year.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
RSS