The struggling EDA Rhinos snapped an eight-game slide with a solid 8-4 win over the Chinatrust Brothers at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night to keep their second-half title hopes alive.
Even though they are not likely to catch the top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys, who also won their contest against the Uni-President Lions at the same time, it was still a big win for the Rhinos, who desperately need anything positive to carry them past their dire situation.
Cheng Da-hung’s two-run single with the bases loaded got things moving in the right direction for the Rhinos, who ended up plating four in the opening frame to spot starter Gabriel Hernandez a rare multi-run lead.
After the visitors managed to up their lead to 5-0 in the second inning, the Brothers finally broke through in the bottom of the third with two runs off Hernandez on Jim Negrych’s RBI single and Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s sacrifice fly to make it 5-2.
That was as close as the Brothers got, with Hernandez tossing shutout ball from the fifth through the seventh, before being pulled after surrendering his third run of the game in the eighth. He went on to pick up win No. 2 of the season in just his fourth start.
Tagged with the loss for the Chinatrust Brothers was starter Lin Yu-ching, who allowed seven runs (five earned) on nine hits in 3-2/3 innings to fall to a 1-6 mark for the year.
MONKEYS 6, LIONS 3
The Lamigo Monkeys won their fifth straight game by defeating the Uni-President Lions 6-3 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night, thanks to Chan Chih-yao’s clutch single that jump-started a three-run seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie wide open.
The game-breaking three-run surge in the seventh came right after the Primates had scored two, with Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu going deep against Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-lung in the bottom of the sixth for his 14th blast of the year.
Picking up his league-best ninth win of the season was Monkeys starter Jared Lansford, who fell behind in the third after coughing up an early1-0 lead, but kept the Lions’ offense at bay just long enough to give his offense the necessary time to bail him out.
He allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning six and walking a pair to improve to a 9-1 record.
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