The Lamigo Monkeys last night won Game 6 of the Taiwan Series at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium in a thrilling 5-4 affair over the Brothers Baseball Club, forcing a deciding Game 7, which is to be played today.
Lamigo’s second pitcher, Jared Lansford of the US, was the key, earning the game MVP.
He pocketed the win by shutting down the Brothers’ attack, conceding only two hits and earning four strikeouts through five innings, setting aside 13 consecutive batters in one stretch to help keep his team in front.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“I had my good fastball today, which made my breaking pitches more effective against the Brothers batters,” Lansford said after the game.
“Before I had experience coming out of bullpen, so I was ready when the manager called on me in the crucial situation and got the job done,” he said.
“It is a great feeling to win and be voted as game MVP, especially in front of the home fans,” he said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Both sides traded runs early in the contest, with the game’s first batter, Chang Cheng-wei (張正偉), opening the Brothers’ account against starter Cesar Valdez from the Dominican Republic.
Chang got on base with a lead-off double, then came home on a sacrifice fly.
Brothers first baseman Hsu Chi-hung (許基宏) hit an RBI-single in the second inning, putting the visitors ahead 2-0.
In the bottom half of the inning with two men on against Brothers starter Bryan Woodall of the US, Lamigo third baseman Yu Te-lung (余德龍) tapped a bouncer up the middle to bring both runners home, leveling the scores.
In the third frame, Brothers clean-up man Peng Cheng-min (彭政閔) hit an RBI-single to put them ahead again.
Lamigo manager Hung Yi-chung (洪一中) made the pivotal decision to pull Valdez, replacing him with Lansford, and the righty induced a pop-fly to end the inning.
Lansford, a former triple-A prospect with the Oakland Athletics, joined Lamigo this season, while his father, former A’s World Series winner Carney Lansford, was hired by the Monkeys as a hitting coach.
Then Monkeys rallied with three consecutive hits in the fourth frame, with outfielder Wang Po-lung (王柏融) ripping a double to knock in two runs to put them ahead 4-3.
Heading into the seventh, D.H. Lin Hung-yu (林泓育) added an insurance run by banging out a double all the way to the outfield wall to score Chan Chih-yao (詹智堯) for 5-3.
The Brothers cut the deficit to one when they squeezed in a run on a walk with the bases loaded in the eighth frame, but that was all they could muster.
“Lansford did an outstanding job to end the Brothers threat in the third,” Hung said. “That and Wang’s double for two runs in the fourth were the two turning points in the win.”
The first pitch in today’s game is scheduled for 5pm at the same ground.
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