Lin Cuen-sheng’s solo blast off Orlando Roman in the bottom of the seventh broke a 2-all tie as the Sinon Bulls held on to top the Brother Elephants 4-3 in a thrilling game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the first home run for the budding rookie catcher in what many expect to be a promising career, providing a huge morale boost for the last-placed Bulls (12-33-2) as they look to salvage a disappointing first half of the season.
Trailing 2-0 after two innings of play, the Elephants held the Sinon offense scoreless for the next four innings to keep it a close game as Roman retired all but one Sinon batter over the span. The Elephants hitters finally awoke as they plated a pair in the top of the seventh, courtesy of an RBI ground out by Chang Cheng-hao and a two-out single by Chen Jiang-ho that drove in the tying run to make it 2-2.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
That was as close as they got as the Bulls returned the favor in the bottom of the inning with Lin’s tiebreaking solo shot, before they added an insurance run in a hitless eighth as Cheng Da-hong drew a leadoff walk off Elephants reliever Kuo Jien-yu, stole second and then reached third on a ground out, before finally scoring on a wild pitch by Kuo to make it 4-2.
Cheng’s run proved crucial as the Elephants rallied for a run in the top of the ninth and loaded the bases against Shen Yu-jeh, before the lefty closer induced a lazy fly to left to set up Cheng’s game-ending catch in foul territory for the win.
“This was a big win for us because we haven’t been able to win the close ones very often this year,” Sinon skipper Liu Rong-hua said after the game.
His Bulls had been 3-12 in games that were decided by two runs or fewer prior to last night’s contest.
Reliever Tsai Ming-jin was credited with his second win of the year for his two innings of one-run relief, while the loss was charged to Roman, who allowed three runs on six hits over seven solid innings in a quality start, only to drop to a 6-3 mark for the season.
LIONS 2, MONKEYS 0
Dan Reichert tossed eight solid innings of shutout ball to lead the Uni-President Lions past the Lamigo Monkeys at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium last night, upping the top-ranked Lions’ lead over the Monkeys to a season-high three games.
The highly anticipated pitchers’ duel between Reichert and his counterpart Steve Hammond lived up to its billing with neither offense able to produce any runs through the fourth until a fielding error by Monkeys outfielder Chung Cheng-yo led to a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth that ended up making all the difference.
Down by two runs, the Monkeys attempted a comeback in the final two frames as Chung tried to redeem himself with a two-out double off Reichert in the eighth and Tsai Jien-wei doing the same against Lions closer Lin Yueh-ping in the ninth.
Neither Chung nor Tsai managed to cross the plate as the Monkeys came up empty on both occasions on a night where the Monkeys batted a futile 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position in a losing effort.
Reichert picked up the win, improving to 7-1 for the season.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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