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Lions take home second straight CPBL title

The Uni-President Lions celebrate in Tainan yesterday after winning the CPBL Taiwan Series for the second consecutive year. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

For the second year in a row, the Uni-President Lions were crowned CPBL champions yesterday.

Starting pitcher Luther Hackman threw a dominating four-hit complete game shutout, stifling a hapless Brother Elephants lineup 4-0 in last night’s decisive game seven in Tainan.

Hackman took series MVP honors as the Lions won the Taiwan Series in seven games for the second straight year.

The 6’4 right-hander won two key games during the series, throwing 17 consecutive scoreless innings between game four and game seven.

The former major leaguer simply took over the rubber match, blanking the Elephants on 112 pitches, striking out four and walking two.

Hackman overpowered the Elephants with 145kph-plus fastballs, knee-bending curveballs and changeups, taking advantage of an often impatient Elephants offense desperate to manufacture runs.

DH Chen Lian-hong hit a two-run home run and catcher Kao Zhi-Gang scored a run and made a key defensive play in the top of the fifth inning, preventing a run by blocking the plate skillfully on Liu Fu-hao’s throw home as third baseman Chen Rui-Zhen attempted to tag on a fly ball.

Elephants starting pitcher Mai Chia-Rui, MVP in Game 3, took the loss, lasting just three innings.

He was lifted for reliever Matthew Perisho in the fourth with no outs and two men on base.

With the victory, the Lions will go to Japan to face South Korean champions SK Wyvrens and the winner of the Japan series in the Konami Cup.

With the season finished, the CPBL heads toward an uncertain future, as it is currently enmeshed in a match-fixing scandal implicating at least 14 players on at least two teams.

The scandal has caused the collapse of one franchise — the d-Media T-Rex — and at least one other is in danger as well.

Last night, however, Luther Hackman and the Lions could briefly forget the league’s troubles and celebrate their back-to-back titles.
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