So much for social distancing.
The Rakuten Monkeys and Fubon Guardians went nose-to-nose on Sunday after Guardians pitcher Henry Sosa repeatedly threw far inside to the Monkeys’ Yen-Wen Kuo. The fourth fastball hit Kuo in the wallet, and the Monkeys took exception. Here’s the video:
2020 4/19 CPBL #FubonGuardians vs #RakutenMonkeys #ForTheFans #CPBL pic.twitter.com/x9ZusXE2p5
— ELEVEN SPORTS TAIWAN (@ElevenSportsTW) April 19, 2020
First and foremost, the commentators on the Eleven Sports broadcast are tremendous. As they explained, this sort of thing is rare for the CPBL. “Are we allowed to say it’s exciting?” Wonderful stuff.
Sosa started ten games for the Astros in 2011 and walked 23 men in 53.1 innings, so it’s safe to say that his control has never exactly been his strong suit. But the commentators are right in that the fourth pitch seemed to be born of frustration that the Monkeys were complaining about the inside fastballs. That’s a no-no, and it’s pretty surprising that he didn’t get ejected from the game. He would’ve been getting an early shower if this happened in MLB.
Kuo, by the way, is one heckuva hitter. Look at these numbers. No wonder that the Rakuten squad was ticked off about this guy getting thrown at.
As entertaining as this was, hopefully teams around the world will keep the shoving matches to a minimum this year. There’s a bit of a pandemic on.
UPDATE [3:04 PM ET]: Gene Wang, a photographer who works CBPL games, reached out with an update from the Guardians’ manager. Apparently Sosa was not trying to hit Kuo. Thank you Gene!
