Lin Chih-ping’s timely single following a triple by Tsai Jien-wei scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh as the Lamigo Monkeys held on to defeat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night for their sixth straight win.
The victory kept the Monkeys atop the league standings with a 6-1 record and dropped the first-half champs from Tainan to a 2-5 mark, dead last in the early part of the second half of the season.
Monkeys starter Steve Hammond tossed eight strong innings of two-run ball on a half-dozen hits in his second straight quality start for the win to improve to 5-6 for the year, while closer Hsu Ming-jeh hurled a perfect ninth to pick up his league-leading 20th save of the season.
Photo: Chan Chao-yang, Taipei Times
In an all-American showdown between Hammond and fellow countryman Dan Reichert, it was the Monkeys who struck first in the bottom of the first with a leadoff walk off Reichert and a run three batters later on Lin Hong-yu’s RBI groundout for a quick 1-0 advantage.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Lions returned the favor and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second when Chen Jung-hui hit a sacrifice-fly to left with the bases loaded to score their first run, before Chu Yuan-chin followed with a run-scoring single off Hammond.
With three runs scored in less than two frames it seemed like it would be a high-scoring affair, but both starters clamped down in a hurry and allowed only one more run over the next four innings — a solo shot by Tseng Hao-jui in the fourth that tied the game at 2-2 until Lin’s game-winner in the seventh.
Reichert was charged with the loss despite going the distance with three allowed runs on eight hits to settle with an 8-5 record. It was the third straight loss for the American righty, even though he had allowed three or fewer earned runs and gone at least six innings on each occasion.
ELEPHANTS 7, BULLS 5
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s two-run blast in the top of the seventh broke a 5-5 tie to lift the Brother Elephants past the Sinon Bulls in a 7-5 final at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
In a contest that featured four lead changes, it was the Bulls who drew first blood with a pair of runs on a first-inning homer by Cheng Da-hong off Elephant starter Orlando Roman.
However, the men in the golden uniforms rallied by plating a run in the second, before skidding ahead 3-2 with two runs in the third, courtesy of an RBI triple by Chang Chih-hao and Chou Si-chi’s groundout to short that drove in Chang on the ensuing play.
The Elephants added to their lead by two in the fifth on RBI doubles by Chia Chia and Chou to make it 5-2, only to see the lead squandered away in the bottom of the same inning when Cheng pounded out a two-run single with the bases loaded, before Chang Jien-ming knocked in the tying run on a fielder’s choice to second that made it 5-5.
Roman was credited with his eighth win of the year, while the loss went to Sinon reliever Chen Huan-yang.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS