The Lamigo Monkeys concluded a four-game home stand with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Uni-President Lions at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday.
The win marked the second straight game that the Monkeys pitchers held the Lions to a lone run, capping the total runs allowed by the Primates to just four over three games.
Starter Hsu “Cat Man” Ming-chieh was not at his best, but he managed to pitch out of trouble on several occasions to hold the Lions to only one run on the eight hits he gave up over seven innings in his first start in more than a month.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
“[Being a starter] is different from my previous relieving role, so it takes some getting used to,” Hsu said about being promoted to the starting role after spending more than a month in the bullpen.
The Monkeys needed little time getting to Justin Thomas with two quick runs off the Lions starter when Yu Teh-lung doubled, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Lin Chih-sheng’s sacrifice fly, before back-to-back singles by Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu and Chen Chun-hsiu made it 2-0 in favor of the hosts.
Even though the Lions scored a run off Hsu in the top of the second to halve the Monkeys’ lead, that was as close as they got as the Primates tacked on another run in the third with Chen’s solo shot and never looked back.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Picking up his second win of the year was Hsu, while the loss was charged to Thomas, who lasted just an inning on two allowed runs and three hits.
RHINOS 7, BROTHERS 6
The EDA Rhinos held off a three-run rally in the ninth by the Chinatrust Brothers to escape with a 7-6 win at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Kaohsiung yesterday.
Closer Lo Chia-jen started the ninth inning with a 7-3 lead and served up three runs to the men in the golden uniforms.
Even though two of the three runs came as a result of a two-run error by second baseman Lin Wei-ting on a routine ground-out that he failed to field cleanly, it was clear that Lo was struggling with his location.
Fortunately for the Rhinos, Huang Sheng-hsiung entered with two outs in the ninth in relief of Lo and got Chen Tzu-hao on a fly-out to right with men at the corners for the game-ending out.
Starter Gaby Hernandez was credited with the win for his seven shutout innings as he improved to 3-1 for the season, while the loss was charged to his counterpart Shaun Garceau, who fell to 0-2 in what could have been his last game in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sports, with the name it has competed under since 1984 — Chinese Taipei — drawing as much attention as its athletes. However, with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad set to begin in Paris on Friday, the exploits of Taiwan’s athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country’s debut in Melbourne in 1956 deserve a nod. Many of Taiwan’s medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status — Maysang Kalimud and Chi Cheng, the only medal winners
Canada women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman on Wednesday said she would step away from the team’s opening game against New Zealand at the Paris Olympics in the wake of a drone scandal. New Zealand complained to the International Olympic Committee’s integrity unit after it said drones were flown over closed practice sessions earlier in the week. As of press time last night, Canada, the defending Olympic champions, were set to open the Paris Games against New Zealand in Saint-Etienne. In the fallout of the complaint, two staff members — assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi — were sent home, the
Shohei Ohtani on Sunday hit a 473-foot (144m) home run as the Los Angeles Dodgers went deep six times in a 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux, Austin Barnes and Jason Heyward also connected as Los Angeles swept the three-game series. “Going into the break, we weren’t playing good baseball, and then to come out fresh against a really good ball club and to play the way we did — the offense came to life,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. It was the 25th time the Dodgers launched at least six homers in a game
Conventional wisdom dictates that the average retirement age for elite female players in the intense and physically demanding sport of badminton is well under 30 years old. Five female shuttlers are set to turn that on its head when they make their fourth Olympic appearances at the Paris Games, a feat never accomplished before. Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying, 30, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, 29, Belgium’s Lianne Tan, 33, and Hong Kong’s Tse Ying Suet and Canada’s Michelle Li, both 32, are to compete for Olympic glory at Porte de La Chapelle Arena from Saturday to Aug. 5. “These achievements get missed because they’re women,” said