BASEBALL
Lions, Monkeys to face off
The CPBL is to open its post-season on Saturday when the Uni-President Lions begin a best-of-five series against the Rakuten Monkeys at home in Tainan. The Lions are to start with a 1-0 lead in the opening round of the five-team league’s playoffs, a perk they received for winning the first half of the season. They also have the advantage of playing all of the series’ games at home except for the second game, to be staged in Taoyuan on Sunday. The Monkeys earned their playoff berth on Sunday by outlasting two-time defending champions the CTBC Brothers 11-9. The Wei Chuan Dragons advanced automatically to the Taiwan Series because they had a better full-season record than the Lions. The winner of the Lions-Monkeys series would face the Dragons in the best-of-seven Taiwan Series, which starts on Saturday next week.
BASKETBALL
US player attacked in Poland
An American player with a professional Polish women’s club was beaten and left with a head injury last week with a suspect later detained, officials and reports in Polish media said on Sunday. Mikayla Cowling, who plays for VBW Arka Gdynia, was attacked late on Wednesday in a music club in Gdansk, said the RMF FM broadcaster, which also quoted the club as saying the “brutal beating” left her with a fractured eye socket, among other injuries. “I am outraged that such a shameful situation has occurred. Violence and aggression are unacceptable and must be opposed,” Gdynia Mayor Wojciech Szczurek wrote on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The attack happened after a EuroCup women’s match where Gdynia defeated Swiss rivals the BCF Elfic Fribourg, 77-47. Cowling scored 7 points. Gdynia president Boguslaw Witkowski said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency that the player was attacked near the women’s restroom by a security guard. The state-run agency also quoted a police spokesperson who said the suspect, a 48-year-old man, was arrested on Friday.
CRICKET
Australia’s Healy bit by dog
Australia acting captain and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy was rushed into surgery at the weekend after injuring her right index finger trying to separate her dogs as they were fighting. Healy was a late withdrawal from the Sydney Sixers ahead of their 42-run defeat to the Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League on Sunday. The Sixers said Healy had hand surgery after a “domestic accident at home,” but her Australia teammate Phoebe Litchfield later revealed the injury was due to a dog attack. Healy yesterday said she sustained an injury after putting her hand between her two Staffordshire bull terriers. “The positive sign out of it is there was no bone or tendon damage, or a rupture,” she told reporters in a videoconference. “I think there was an artery involved which probably made it look more like a crime scene than it needed to be. It was quite gory.” Healy, who is now in doubt for the rest of the season, is to meet with surgeons on Thursday. “When I pulled my finger out initially, I thought I was in strife, but it’s all gone smoothly at the moment,” she said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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