Shoda Itsuki pitched nine innings of two-run ball and Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien went 3-for-4 with three RBIs as the Sinon Bulls beat the Uni-President Lions 6-2 in Tainan on Wednesday evening.
The win upped the top-ranked Bulls’ lead over the second-place Lions to 1-1/2 games and nipped a five-game Lions winning streak.
Lin Yi-chuen’s RBI-single up the middle off Lions starter Valerio de los Santos gave the Bulls a 1-0 lead in the top of the second before they added to it in the third after two singles and a double to lead 3-0 after three innings.
After a scoreless fourth, the Bulls doubled their run total with Hsieh’s three-run blast off de los Santos for a 6-0 advantage.
The home side finally broke through in the sixth against Shoda when Pan Wu-hsiung drove a double to deep-left, stole third and scored on Chen Lien-hong’s sacrifice-fly after he was able to steal third against Shoda.
Trailing 6-1, Kao Guo-ching added another run for the Lions with a solo shot off Shoda in the bottom of the ninth to make it 6-2 but the determined Bulls starter struck out the next Lions batter to end the game.
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