The Lamigo Monkeys’ Lin Chih-sheng hit an RBI single off his Monkeys teammate Hsu Ming-jeh to cap a three-run seventh that broke a 6-6 tie as Team White held on to defeat Bank of Taiwan Team Red 9-8 at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night in this year’s All-Star Game.
The veteran slugger, who was traded from Team Red to Team White in the first ever player exchange in an All-Star Game, proved to be the difference in the match as he pounded a pitch down the pike from his fellow Lamigo reliever over the middle to score what ended up being the winner.
“Who would’ve thought [Lin Chih-sheng] would end up being the bat that beat us,” Team White manager Hung Yi-chung said after the game.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Hung was the one who announced the deal on Friday when the team swapped Lin Chih-sheng for Lin Yi-chuan of the Sinon Bulls in an effort to raise the level of drama in the annual mid-summer classic.
The win not only ended a 10-year losing streak for the side that contains Sinon Bulls players, what many have called “the Sinon curse,” but it also ended a 10-year victory drought for future Hall-of-Famer Chang “OEO” Tai-shan, who was picked up by the Lions after being released by the Bulls at the end of last season, ridding him of the tag the “Tai-shan curse,” as the Lions were also part of the winning team on the night.
Chang was given the nod by the Team White coaching staff to take the mound for the first time, as the league’s only 1,800-hit and 1,100-RBI man picked up a hold by getting a hitter out in a rare relief appearance in the bottom of the eighth.
“I was actually quite nervous standing all alone out on the mound,” Chang said in the post-game interview.
Picking up the win was Team White’s Chen Huan-yang of the Sinon Bulls, who tossed a perfect sixth to beat Wang for his first win in an All-Star Game.
BASE-RUNNING CONTEST
Bank of Taiwan Team Red made it two wins in a row by topping Team White in a narrow 1:044 to 1:010 margin in the annual base-running contest earlier yesterday for the distinction as the top runners in the league.
With a crew of eight that was essentially the same as last year except for Lin Chih-ping, who replaced Lin Chih-sheng of the Lamigo Monkeys, Team Red blazed around the bases without missing a beat, which was bad news for Team White, who finished with a very respectable time.
The winners went home with the winners’ banner, as well as NT$32,000 in prize money for their efforts.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
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