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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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