The Uni-President Lions clinched the second-half title with a narrow 2-1 victory over the Brother Elephants at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only completed the Cats climb from last place in the standings all the way to the top in one of the most dramatic midseason turnarounds in recent history, but also earned them a ticket into the upcoming Taiwan Series to take on the first-half champs the EDA Rhinos.
Kao Chih-kang’s clutch single with the bases loaded drove in two runs that broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth to give the Lions a 2-0 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish despite allowing the Elephants to plate their lone run of the game in the bottom of the seventh that made it 2-1.
Leading the way on the mound for the victorious Cats was starter Nelson Figueroa who tossed seven effective innings of one-run ball on six hits and four strikeouts before handing the game to the Lion bullpen.
And the relieving corps made up of hired guns Boof Bonser from the US and Luis Vizcaino from the Dominican Republic would equal the task by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively to preserve the win.
The trio of foreign hurlers may very well be a newfound winning pitching combination for coach Chen Lien-hung who took over from predecessor Terushi Nakajima in the middle of the season after the latter was relieved of his job after a dismal first half of the season.
RHINOS 7, MONKEYS 2
Shen Fu-ren’s tiebreaking grand slam in the top of the ninth was difference as the EDA Rhinos overcame an early 2-0 deficit with seven unanswered runs to top the Lamigo Monkeys 7-2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the first career home run for the fifth-year infielder and former pitcher, giving his club a much needed victory after having lost four of their last five to fall out of title contention.
Picking up the win for the Rhinos was Tsai Ming-jin, who retired both of the batters he faced to end the eighth and improve to 5-4, while the loss was charged against Lamigo starter Tseng Jau-hao.
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
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
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