Taking advantage of a critical mistake by the Lamigo Monkeys defense, the Uni-President Lions overcame an early deficit with a three-run sixth to run away with a 3-2 road win at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night in the opener of this year’s Taiwan Series.
Kao Chih-kang’s grounder to short in the sixth with runners on second and third would have represented the inning-ending out and kept the Lions leading 2-1, but it was mishandled by Monkeys shortstop Chang Jia-hao, which allowed the runner on third to score and gave the Big Cats a 3-1 lead.
The error proved costly for the Primates as the Lions held a potent Monkeys attack to just one more run the rest of the way to preserve a narrow 3-2 win.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
While the offenses for both teams took the spotlight in the weeklong pregame hype leading up to the opener, with the showdown between the league’s top two home run hitters— Lin Hong-yu of the Monkeys and Kao Guo-ching of the Lions — being the center of attention, it was the defense that actually turned out to make the difference in the game.
“We played a very good defensive game with some outstanding glove work,” Lion skipper Lu Wen-sheng said in the postgame interview.
His Lions pack took away at least a couple of runs from the Monkeys with three key defensive plays, the first being a diving catch by centerfielder Liu Fu-hao in the top of the third that negated a run for the Monkeys, the second being a great grab by game-MVP Chen Yung-chi, who took away a run-scoring double from Tsai Jien-wei playing at third to replace an injured Chang Tai-shan and finally Kao Guo-ching’s over-the-shoulder catch in foul territory in the ninth recorded the Monkeys’ second out in the ninth.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Doubles by Kuo Shu-wei and Tsai off Lions starter Seth Etherton gave the Monkeys a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third.
The score remained at 1-0 through the fifth with Monkeys starter Ken Ray keeping the Lions offense off the board despite allowing at least a hit in four of the first five innings.
Ray’s luck would finally ran out in the sixth as he served up three straight singles to load up the bases in the sixth inning, before Chang Tai-shan and Chen Lien-hong drove in the Lions’ first two runs with a single and an RBI-groundout that made it 2-1 in favor of the visitors.
Etherton was credited with the win for his five solid innings of play, allowing a run on six hits while fanning five and walking one.
As for the Monkeys, Ray was tagged with the loss, falling victim to a shaky defense that committed a pair of errors in the game.
Today’s Game
Game 2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium is scheduled for 5pm with the Lions sending Dan Reichert to the mound to take on the Monkeys’ Bryan Corey.
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
As sporting celebrations go, it does not quite have the charm of Roger Milla’s hip-wiggling shimmy with a corner flag at the 1990 World Cup or the imperious swagger of Usain Bolt’s iconic lightning pose. However, a dance move inspired by US president-elect Donald Trump’s stilted on-stage boogieing has rapidly become the celebration of choice across the US sporting world. From the blood-soaked UFC to the hard-hitting NFL and the reliably decorous world of the LPGA Tour, athletes across North America have succumbed to the viral Trump dance craze in the past week. On Monday, US soccer star Christian Pulisic became the latest
RSS