Rallying from multi-run deficits on both occasions, the top-ranked Uni-President Lions swept the Sinon Bulls in a day-night doubleheader at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday to pick up victories No. 39 and No. 40.
Lin Yueh-ping made baseball history by becoming the first ever Taiwanese to record 100 saves in the league when he retired the last three Sinon hitters in order to preserve the 6-4 win for teammate Wang Jing-ming.
“It is a tremendous honor to be able to accomplish this feat, I’d like to thank the coaching staff for giving me the opportunity to do the closer’s role, which is where I feel most comfortable,” Lin said after the game.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Pan “TAKE” Wu-hsiung’s two-out single scored the runner all the way from first to cap a two-run sixth that tied the game at 4-4, before Yang Song-hsuan’s clutch single with runners at the corners scored the go-ahead run an inning later.
In the day game, the Lions doubled up on the visiting Bulls in an 8-4 decision, thanks to five unanswered runs by the Cats that turned a 3-4 deficit into the 8-4 win.
Liao Wen-yang bailed out Yuya Kamada by pitching four scoreless innings of three-hit relief to give the slow-warming Lions offense the necessary time to turn the game around.
That was great news for Kamada, as the Japanese starting pitcher avoided a potential loss after giving up four early runs, before exiting the game after the fourth inning with the Lions trailing the Bulls 3-4.
The no-decision for Kamada kept his league-best record at a perfect 11-0, even though the three earned runs by the righty raised his ERA from 1.42 to 1.67 in the process.
Offensively for the Cats, Lin Chih-shiang’s four-for-five hitting with an RBI led an efficient attack that plated eight on the 13 hits they mustered off the Sinon pitching.
Kao Guo-ching also hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the first for his league-leading ninth round-tripper of the season.
Elephants 8, Monkeys 4
The Brother Elephants tripped up the Lamigo Monkeys 8-4 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to extend their winning streak to three.
The Elephant hitters set a new high for total hits in a game with 20 as seven different players racked up multi-hit nights against generous Monkeys pitching, with Chang Cheng-wei connecting on five occasions to account for a quarter of the hits.
Starter Jim Magrane was credited with his fifth win of the year after seven innings of three-run ball (only one earned) on six hits.
The loss went to his Lamigo Monkeys counterpart Cheng Cheng-hao, who lasted only one inning after he served up four quick runs in the first inning to dig a hole from which the Monkeys never recovered.
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College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
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