In the other final-day game, the Lions beat the Whales in Kaohsiung 6-4.
Martinez allowed only four scattered hits in eight innings and walked only one batter to register his 12th win of the season and fifth in a row. Nakagomi Shin of the Elephants, in search of his 16th win of the season, only lasted four innings as he gave up seven hits and allowed four runs.
The Bulls batters collected three hits against Nakagomi in the second inning and scored two runs on Yeh Choon-chang's double to left. On the top of the third, Tzeng Hua-wei belted his 7th home run this season to knock in two more runs for the Bulls to extend the lead to four runs.
Chang Tai-shan's solo home run on the top of the fifth took the Bulls further ahead, with Martinez shutting off the Elephants in his eight-inning effort. The Bulls' Huang Chung-yee failed to collect any hits in his five at-bats and lost the chance to top the batting averages.
The Elephants will meet the Whales in the 2002 CPBL Championship Series starting on Oct. 12th in Tienmu Stadium in a best-of-seven series.
By Paul Huang
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Game MVP Jason Lakman might have pitched the best game of his short TML tenure in last night's 6-3 Kaohsiung Fala victory over the visiting Taipei Gida.
Lakman came on during the fifth, after Fala starter Lee Fong-hua had given up the third run of the game to trail the Gida by one run, and one-hit the Gida lineup in five innings of shutout relief for the victory.
Lakman faced 17 batters during the five-inning span, two more than the 15 minimum.
One of the two batters that reached first was Gida first baseman Ando Shinji on his single to left to begin the eighth, while the other Gida batter to reach base was shortstop Lin Kuen-han, courtesy of Lakman's only walk of the game.
Fala starter Lee was fortunate not to be tagged with the loss due to the stellar performance of Lakman.
Lee was pulled by Fala manager Hsu Sen-ming after surrendering three runs on seven hits over four-plus innings of play in a no-decision effort.
The Fala hitters followed their two-run fourth-inning attack with another pair of runs to take a 4-3 lead that they never lost. Fala shortstop Rafael Osuna's RBI single to left off Gida starter Kato Hiroto turned out to be the game-winning hit.
Two more insurance runs were added in the Fala seventh as they pulled away for the victory behind back-to-back singles by right fielder Hsu Yao-yuen and designated hitter Chen Chin-yi.
Game Four of this first round playoff series will move to Taipei tonight in a rematch of Game One pitchers, with Gida's Yamahara Kazutoshi taking on the Fala's Carlos Chavez.
With the Fala one game away from clinching this series, they will look to bring home the ticket to play in the Championship Series, while the Gida hopes to stay alive for another day in a must-win game.
RSS