Brother Elephants batter Huang Cheng-wei’s RBI single with a man on third forced extra innings that saw his club play through to the 12th for a 2-2 draw with the Sinon Bulls at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday night.
Chang Jien-ming led off the game with a single off Brother starter Lee Hao-ren for the Bulls and scored two batters later when Lin Yi-chuan muscled a liner to right. Wilton Veras followed with a sacrifice fly to give their team an early 2-0 lead.
The Elephants got back a run in the bottom of the same frame courtesy of a single by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min off Sinon lefty Lin Ying-jeh.
That was all either club could manage over the next seven innings as Lee and Lin buckled down and held their ground through the sixth, while the bullpens did their part to keep it 2-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
The Bulls had an excellent chance to go up in the top of the 11th when they had runners on first and second with one out against Elephants closer Ryan Cullen and Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan at the plate.
The Prince, however, short-hopped a pitch to third that led to a force out at second before the Elephants defense caught Chang Jien-ming trying to reach third in an unusual double play that put an end to the Bulls’ scoring threat.
LIONS 5, BEARS 2
Yang Dong-yi’s clutch double in the top of the sixth broke a 2-all deadlock for the Uni-President Lions as they went on to defeat the La New Bears 5-2 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Saturday night for the Cats’ fourth consecutive victory.
The visiting Cats pounced ahead 1-0 in the top of the third on a pair of doubles by Pan Wu-hsiung and Kuo Dai-chi, and made it 2-0 an inning later when Yang hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored the runner from third.
La New finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, with Chen Chin-fong’s two-run blast off Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen notching it up to 2-2. It was Chen’s 24th long ball of the year.
Unfortunately for the Bears, that was all the runs they could muster as Du Du worked a quick fifth and sixth before the Lions bullpen came in and shut down the Bears attack with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Italian Luca de Aliprandini described Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom at Val d’Isere as the hardest race of his life, coming two days after his Swiss partner Michelle Gisin suffered a heavy fall in training which required neck surgery. De Aliprandini finished 26th in the men’s event won by Loic Meillard, but the result paled into insignificance with two-time Olympic ski champion Gisin in hospital with injuries to her wrist, knee and cervical spine (neck). “It was Michelle’s wish that I race here. I couldn’t say no to her, but it was the toughest race of my entire life,” an emotional De