Five quick runs over the first two innings set the tone early in the game as the Uni-President Lions outslugged the La New Bears 9-6 in Tainan on Friday night to take Game 1 of the three-game series.
The win not only avenged a series sweep by the Bears in Kaohsiung last weekend, but also forced a tie between the two squads at the top of the league standings.
Lions ace Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen shook off a rough first — in which he allowed a run on a pair of singles and a walk — by shutting down the Bears offense over the next three innings before giving up two more runs in the fifth.
He left after a scoreless sixth to qualify for his seventh quality start in 10 chances.
Leading the attack for the home Cats were Jose Castillo and Chen Lien-hong, who drove in four combined runs with three hits apiece to account for nearly half of the Lions’ total run production.
Kao Chih-kang also stared for the Lions, tying a league mark for the most consecutive games with at least one run scored at 13 with three on the night, highlighted by a two-run blast in the second that upped the Lions’ lead to 5-1.
As for the Bears, Aaron Rakers’ bid to win his seventh of the year fell short.
The American righty surrendered a season-high eight runs on nine hits over four-and-a-third innings of work, including a pair of homers, to drop to a 6-2 record.
ELEPHANTS 4, BULLS 2
The Brother Elephants doubled up on the Sinon Bulls at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday, with a 4-2 win that sent the Bulls to their fourth straight defeat.
The pitchers’ duel between the Bulls’ Pedro Liriano and the Elephants’ Kobayashi Ryokan saw the Bulls break a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth inning when Cheng Da-hong led off the frame with a single and scored one batter later on Cheng Jau-han’s double.
It turned out to be the only lead the Bulls would enjoy, as the Elephants answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning, led by Chu Hong-seng’s two-run single off Liriano.
Sinon scored their second run of the game off Kobayashi to make it 3-2 before the Elephants struck for an insurance run in the eighth.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
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