Fernandez Echavarria Pedro Arsenio on Saturday gave up just one run in eight innings as the Rakuten Monkeys beat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 in Tainan to tie up the best-of-five CPBL playoff series at one game apiece.
Although Saturday’s game at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium was technically the first in the series, the Lions earned a one-game advantage after clinching the first-half season title.
In the nine CPBL playoff rounds held since 1998, the team winning Game 1 of the best-of-five series has advanced to the Taiwan Series.
Photo courtesy of the Rakuten Monkeys via CNA
This year’s winners are to face the Wei Chuan Dragons in the best-of-seven Taiwan series. The dragons earned an automatic berth by winning the second-half season title and holding the best full-season record.
Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu praised his players for showing toughness in the face of the Lions’ automatic 1-0 lead, crediting starting pitcher Arsenio for his confidence on the mound.
“He displayed great dominance after taking a 10-day break. He attacked the strike zone aggressively and made the batters swing and strike several times. So I decided to let him continue pitching even after the eighth inning,” Tseng said.
Arsenio yielded only two runs on six hits over his eight-inning start, with a solo shot by Su Chih-chieh in the bottom of the fourth the only earned run.
The right-handed pitcher was pulled in the bottom of the ninth without retiring a batter after he walked Su and yielded a single to Chen Yung-chi.
The 29-year-old Dominican said he regretted not continuing to attack the strike zone as he did in the first eight innings, but praised the depth of the Monkeys’ bullpen for weathering the final inning.
The Lions suffered a blow in the fourth inning when designated hitter Lin An-ko was carried off the field after fouling a ball off the outside of his left knee.
In a post-game interview, Lions manager Lin Yue-ping said that the injury was likely to rule Lin out for the rest of the series, meaning a bigger role for Chiu Chih-cheng.
For last night’s game in Taoyuan, 11,000 tickets had been sold as of Saturday, making it the fifth CPBL challenger game with more than 10,000 spectators.
“Now we’ve evened the series, I hope our fans will pack the stadium and cheer for us,” Tseng said.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS