The top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys bounced back from a minor slump over the past week with a 9-6 victory over the Uni-President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to close the weekend with a 1-1-1 record.
The win marked just the Primates’ second win in their past seven outings as they widened their lead over the second-placed Lions to four games, while reducing the magic number to clinch the first-half title to three wins.
Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu greeted the Cats with his 60th career homer, drilling an offering from Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen over the right-centerfield wall for his third blast in the past four games to give his team a 4-0 lead in the top of the third.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
That wasn’t all the Primates collected off Du Du, who lasted only one out into the third in his shortest outing of the season, as they tacked on a pair more runs in the same inning to chase the veteran right-hander. Pan was charged for all six runs that the Monkeys scored on five hits, even though only three of them were earned.
Trailing by six, the Cats got two of the runs back in the bottom of the fourth when Kao “Green Tank” Guo-ching homered off Monkeys starter Roydrick Merritt with a runner to make it 6-2.
After the Monkeys plated one more run in the sixth that made it 7-2, the Lions managed to score the next four runs to fall within one in the bottom of the seventh and they would have tied the game if it had not been for a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play by the Monkeys’ defense with the bases loaded that kept it 7-6.
That was as close as the Lions got as the Monkeys put up a run each in the eighth and ninth against the Lions bullpen, before closer Miguel Mejia tossed a scoreless ninth.
Four batters had multihit games on the night for the Monkeys, led by Yu Teh-lung and Lin Chih-ping’s three-hit efforts.
The Green Tank had a career-best day at the plate for the Lions with four hits and as many RBIs, even though his team lost.
RHINOS V BROTHERS POSTPONED
A steady downpour forced officials to call off the contest between the EDA Rhinos and the Chinatrust Brothers at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The two teams are due to play the game in Tianmu on June 21.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Manchester United on Thursday settled for a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 tie. United led on Joshua Zirkzee’s goal in the 58th minute, but the hosts equalized 12 minutes later after Bruno Fernandes’ hand ball and Mikel Oyarzabal sent Andre Onana the wrong way from the penalty spot. The Europa League could be a way for United to finish the season with a trophy after crashing out of the FA Cup on Sunday. A spot in the quarter-finals is to be on the line at Old Trafford in the second leg on Thursday next
RSS