Elephants' batters slug their way into third place in CPBL

The red-hot bats of the Brother Elephants that have come on strong lately are the main reason that the Elephants have quietly slipped past the fourth-placed President Lions and taken over the third-place spot in the league standings.

Led by the ever-consistent all-star center fielder Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠), whose batting average has not dropped below .300 all season long, and May's Player of the Month Peng Cheng-ming (彭政閔), the Elephant offense has outscored its opponents by an average of seven to three over the last six games.

"This [the Elephants] is definitely a different ball club from the one I saw in March and April," well-known local baseball commentator Jack Chen said. "This is more like the defending champions that I'm used to seeing."

The last time the Elephants lost a series was in mid-April.

Round Up

The First Securities Agan were no match against the high-flying Elephants in the makeup game in Hsinchuang on Tuesday night.

Elephant base runners were busy all game with a season-high eight steals, only one shy of tying the league record set by the former China Times Eagles in 1996.

Agan starter Greg Bicknell of Fresno, California failed to keep 3-0 lead after 1-1/2 innings of play as he allowed four runs in the bottom of the second en route to a 5-9 loss, his eighth of the season.

Still winless for the season, the former Luka of the TML was released by the Agan after the game for a poor showing in his second visit to Taiwan.

Bicknell is 0-8 with an ERA of 5.05 in 13 appearances, mostly in the starting role.

Also in action were the Bulls against the Gida in Hsinchu and Hsinchuang on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having clinched the title for the first half of the season, Bull manager Chen Wei-chen (陳威成) rested four of his regular starters.

Game 1 of the four-game series featured the two newcomers on the Gida team: starter Peter Moylan and third baseman Osmani Estrada.

The "foreign help" immediately paid dividends as Moylan held the Bulls to two runs on eight hits over seven innings of play for his first win of the season while Estrada went 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBI's in the 4-2 Gida victory.

Game 2 of the series began with the Bulls jumping to an early 6-0 lead after only two innings of play.

Bulls ace Jeff Andra went 5-1/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits.

Leading by a score of 6-3 in the seventh, Bulls relievers Kuo Yun-chih (郭勇志) and Yu Wen-pin (余文彬) allowed three more runs to knot the game at six all. Gida reliever Tsai Shih-ching (蔡士勤) then hit the batter in the back with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth to bring home the go-ahead run before closer Ramon Morel pitched a scoreless ninth for his 15th save of the season in the 7-6 thriller.

Upcoming Games

The Bulls will finish the series against the Gida in Taichung on Friday and Saturday before the first half of the season comes to an end.

Caught between resting as many as his regular starters as possible and winning the last homestand of the season, manager Chen Wei-chen will have some tough decisions to make against a feisty Gida team.

The Elephants host the Whales in Hsinchuang, with one game yesterday and one today, and then a game in Tienmu on Sunday.

Trailing the second-placed Whales by 2-1/2 games, a sweep by the Elephants could move them into second place.

The Lions will travel to Kaohsing for a three-game series against the Agan. Game 1 was yesterday, and games 2 and 3 will be tomorrow and Sunday.