The Lamigo Monkeys are to hold a victory parade in Taoyuan tomorrow to celebrate winning the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s Taiwan Series, team officials said yesterday, while announcing a series of special events and sales at corporate parent Lamigo’s core businesses and participating stores.
The Monkeys on Thursday crushed Brothers Baseball Club in Game 5 of the best-of-seven, season-ending series at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, a 20-3 blowout victory that secured them a third consecutive championship.
The Monkeys have been the league’s most dominant team over the past decade, winning the championship five times in the past six years, and their ferocious batting lineup set several new records in this season’s final game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
In Game 5, the Monkeys cranked out 21 hits, including a record five home runs, and their 20 runs set a new record for the Taiwan Series, surpassing the previous high of 19.
The 17-run winning margin was also a new record for the series.
The Monkeys also became Taiwan’s fourth professional team to win the championship title in three consecutive years, joining the now-defunct Weichuan Dragons, the then-Brother Elephants and the Uni-President Lions.
After the game, Lamigo general manager Justin Liu said: “I am proud to say that our team can be considered a powerhouse with the three-peat.”
“This is a wonderful accomplishment. It is a perfect ending, just like in the movies. I wish time could be frozen at this moment forever,” he said, referring to the game being the last for the club as the Lamigo Monkeys.
Earlier this year, the ball club was purchased by Tokyo-based e-commerce giant Rakuten. They are to be renamed the Rakuten Golden Eagles starting next season, but would continue to play home games at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
Head coach Hung Yi-chung was modest about the victory.
“We were more fortunate in these games — luck was on our side,” Hung said.
“But it was not easy, as heading into the post-season, our coaching staff had lots of work, from helping players recuperate from injuries to tuning their conditioning from our late-season slump,” Hung added.
Second-year Monkeys player Lin Li was voted Most Valuable Player for the finals after recording 13 hits, three home runs and 11 RBIs for a 0.520 batting average over the five games.
Separately yesterday, Taiwan were as of press time last night leading South Korea 7-1 through the seventh inning in the medal round of the Asian Baseball Championship at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
In the afternoon contest at the stadium, Japan trounced China 11-1.
South Korea are to face Japan at noon today at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, followed by Taiwan taking on China at 6:30pm.
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
Armand Duplantis will be among the reigning Olympic champions adding star power to the world indoor championships this weekend when the Chinese city of Nanjing hosts the first major global athletics meet since the Paris Games last year. The three-day event was originally slated for 2020 and faced multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nanjing’s Sports Training Center would finally welcome more than 570 athletes for the start of the showpiece today. One of the main attractions would be pole vaulter “Mondo” Duplantis, who soared 6.27m to break the world record for a staggering 11th time in Clermont-Ferrand last
RSS