Elephants right fielder named Player of the Month

Peng Cheng-ming was the unanimous choice among the members of the Chinese Baseball Writers Association for the Offensive Player of Month. PHOTO: FILE PHOTO, TAIPEI TIMES

The results for the CPBL monthly MVPs are in, and the Brother Elephants' cleanup man and right fielder Peng Cheng-ming (彭政閔) was the unanimous choice among the members of the Chinese Baseball Writers Association (CBWA) for the Offensive Player of Month honor in May.

Sinon Bull ace Jeff Andra beat out fellow teammate Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南) by a slim nine-to-eight margin to take home the Pitcher of the Month honor.

Peng made things very easy for the voters with his explosive power and finesse in the batter's box. With a batting average of .481, three homers, and a league-high 17 RBIs in May, Peng fully regained his all-star form from last season (batting average of .310, 18 homeruns and 71 RBIs), after a sub par performance during the two previous months.

His recent success was the main reason why the Elephants were 11-4 last month and have not lost a series in seven tries. Peng's timely resurgence will definitely play a big part in the Elephants' title hunt in the second half of the season and a potential "threepeat" for the two-time defending champs.

Unlike the unanimous decision on Peng, the members of the CBWA were torn between two great pitchers on the Bulls' starting rotation, both of whom had an outstanding month. Andra (8-0 with an 1.89 ERA and 74 strikeouts for the season) was 3-0 in four starts with a 2.08 ERA, while Tsai (7-3 with a 3.65 ERA and 46 strikeouts for the season) won all three of his starts with an ERA of 2.25. Andra was probably favored by most writers because of his slightly better ERA.

It's a bit unusual for two starting pitchers from the same team to compete for the pitching honor in any given month, because each player can only have a maximum of four starts to display his abilities. The fact that Andra and Tsai combined for six wins in seven starts was the main reason why the Bulls were 9-4-1 last month and the favorite to win the title for the first half of the season.

Round Up

The Elephants ran their record against the First Securities Agan to 8-0 for the season with two more impressive victories earlier this week. Game 1 in Hsinchunag on Tuesday marked the first win of the season for starter Wan Chin-li (王勁力).

Wang, who was 11-6 with a reasonable ERA of 4.32 last season, struggled for the most part this year (1-3 with an ERA of 5.48). The 2-1 win was important for the Elephants because they had not been able to win many close games this year, going 5-9 in games decided by two or fewer runs prior to Tuesday's game.

As for the Agan, the 2-1 heartbreaker erased an outstanding showing by the newly acquired Korean right-hander Hee Yun-gyong, who gave up two runs (one earned) in seven solid innings of work. Yun is 0-1 with an 1.46 ERA in three appearances with the Agan since joining the team three weeks ago.

Game 2 of the series in Hsinchuang on Wednesday featured two American veterans on the mound: Greg Bicknell of the Agan and Jonathan Hurst of the Elephants.

The game started with the Elephant offense spotting Hurst an early 7-0 lead after two innings of play. Hurst did not disappoint his offense as he breezed through the first five innings, allowing only two harmless hits. It was not until the sixth inning that the Agan hitters caught on to Hurst's pitches and scored two runs against the right-hander from South Carolina, to make it 7-2.

An inning later, with a commanding six-run lead, Elephant skipper Lin Yi-tseng (林易增) decided to pull his ace off the mound, giving his young bull pen some game experience.

Relievers Chen Shih-ping (陳世斌) and Liu Wen-mao (劉文貿) combined to yield one more run in 2-1/3 innings of work to give Hurst his sixth win of the season in an 8-3 ball game.

Upcoming Games

The Elephants will finish up a four-game series against the Agan in Hsinchung today and in Tienmu on Saturday. Having already won the first two games, they are guaranteed to at least a tie for the series, extending their non-losing streak to seven series.

Second-place Chinatrust Whales will host the Makoto Gida in Chiayi for an important three-game series which began yesterday and continues tomorrow and Sunday.

Down by only 1-1/2 games in league standings, a three-game sweep, coupled by two or more Bulls losses this week, will give the Whales their first lead in league standings this season.

The red-hot bat of Whales first baseman Hung Chi-fong (洪啟峰) will look to do more damage against a Gida pitching staff that has allowed on average over six runs per game this season.

The Bulls visited the struggling President Lions in Tainan yesterday, and will continue the series on Saturday and Sunday. The Bulls will be looking to boost their 1-1/2 game lead over the Whales in the standings. The league's only two eight-game winners, Jeff Andra of the Bulls and Joe Davenport of the Lions, will try to outpitch each other to get a ninth win under their belt.