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Whales overcome Bulls in the last game of series

The much anticipated three-game series between the league-leading Sinon Bulls and the second-placed Chinatrust Whales in Taichung didn't live up to its billing until the last game on Sunday with the visiting Whales leaving town on a winning note.

The 3-2 Whales victory was in contrast to the first two games of the series, where each team won one lopsided game apiece.

Down by 2-1/2 games prior to the start of the series, the Whales arrived in Taichung with hopes for a three-game sweep, only to see it smothered by Bulls starter Jeff Andra in a 8-1 Bulls win.

Andra greeted the Whales batters with all his pitches working to perfection through seven strong innings. Other than yielding a pair of singles in the fourth that led to the Whales' only run of the game, Andra kept the opposing hitters off balanced all night long, allowing just three hits while striking out five.

Whales starter Hsieh Cheng-hsun (謝承勳), tops the league with an ERA of 1.48, but he fell victim to some poor fielding by his defense as only one of the seven runs given up by him was earned.

Game 2 of the series on Saturday proved that the Bulls are mortal as Whales hitters, led by first baseman Hung Chi-fong's (洪啟峰) three-RBIs, dominated the hosting Bulls in a 10-4 affair.

Bulls skipper Chen Wei-chen (陳威成) sent five different pitchers to the mound in an attempt to hold off the Whales attack.

The series finale took place on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of over 6,000 plus. The Whales jumped on a 2-0 lead in the third inning before adding another run in the sixth on Hung's solo homer off of Bulls starter Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南).

The Bulls would not go away quietly as they finally got to Whales starter Nakayama Hiroaki in the bottom of the sixth, adding two runs of their own behind back-to-back run-scoring singles by right fielder Kao Chien-long (高健龍) and catcher Yeh Jung-chang (葉君璋) to make the score 3-2.

Concerned with his team's recent trend in blowing late-inning leads, Whales manager Lin Chung-chiou (林仲秋) turned to relief pitcher Lin Chao-huang (林朝煌) in the seventh in an attempt to protect the one-run advantage. Unlike the night before, where Lin Chao-huang gave up a home run late in the game, he retired the sides two innings in a row before handing the game to closer Kuo-Lee Chien-fu (郭李建夫) to start the ninth.

Kuo-Lee responded with a perfect ninth inning to preserve the win for starter Nakayama, his seventh of the season. The victory not only gave the Whales the edge in the series, it also reduced the Bulls' lead over the Whales in league standings to 1-1/2 games. It was only the second series that the Bulls have lost all season

"Lin Chao-huang came up huge for us in the seventh and the eighth [retiring the sides two innings in a row]," Whales manager Lin Chung-chiou said in the post-game interview. "That was the key to our victory."

Elsewhere in the league, the red-hot Brother Elephants kept their six-series non-losing streak in tact as they took three of four from the struggling President Lions on the Elephants' visit to Tainan.

After losing the series opener on last Tuesday by a score of 5-2, the Elephants easily handled the Lions in the remaining three games by a combined score of 23-9.

Led by all-star center fielder Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠) and his teammate right fielder Peng Cheng-ming (彭政閔), who were 10 for 18 with six RBIs, and 8 for 15 with four RBIs, respectively during the four-game series, the Elephants eliminated the last trace of hope for the Lions in the elusive title hunt for the first half of the season.

An example of how tough things have become for Lions manager Hsieh Chang-hern (謝長亨) had to use Friday night's starter Pan Wei-luen (潘威倫) as a last resort to complete the series on Saturday, where the Lions tied the league record after calling up seven pitchers to the mound during the course of the game game.

In the battle between the two former TML teams (Makoto Gida and First Securities Agan), on Thursday the Gida missed an excellent opportunity for a three-game sweep after a wild pitch led to the game-tying run for the Agan.

The nine-all game featured Gida first baseman Hsieh Jia-shian's (謝佳賢) eighth home run of the season, placing him behind league leader Bulls third baseman Chang Tai-shan's (張泰山) 13 homers.

The Gida finished the series with two impressive wins and a tie.
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