Andra's winning streak ends while Whales fall short

A pair of impressive streaks were broken in the Chinese Pofessional Baseball League over the weekend. Jeff Andra's 12-game winning streak was snapped by the Lions on Friday, while the Chinatrust Whales' seven-game winning streak was snapped in Tienmu on Saturday.

The series between the Lions and the Bulls began in Tainan Thursday, where the visitors overcame an early three-run deficit by scoring eight unanswered runs to beat the Lions 8-3.

The Bulls rookie standout Yang Chien-fu (楊建福) came into the game in the fifth, trailing 0-3 and allowed only one hit in three innings for his third win of the season.

Closer Ramon Morel got the last six outs for his league-leading 22nd save of the season. The right-hander from the Dominican Republic gave up one run in the bottom of the ninth, but was saved by a game-ending doubleplay.

Offensively for the Bulls, the night belonged to team captain Huang Chung-yi (黃忠義), who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and the game-winner that earned him MVP honors for the day.

Game 2 of the series featured Americans Jeff Andra for the Bulls and John Frascatore for the hosts.

Still undefeated for the season, Andra cruised through the first four innings with relative ease in a 1-1 tie. Then the Lions pounded out six straight hits in the fifth inning, scoring four runs. All five of the Lions runs were charged against Andra in one of his shortest outings of the season.

Frascatore allowed only two runs on five hits over eight innings. The 5-2 win evened his record for the year at 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA.

The Lions picked up where they left off on Sunday as they cracked open a scoreless game in the fifth with two runs off Bulls starter Osvaldo Martinez on centerfielder Huang Kang-ling's (黃甘霖) two-run standup double. The Lions would put three more runs on the board in the sixth to take a 5-0 lead.

Pan Wei-luen (潘威倫) kept the Bulls hitters guessing all night, allowing only three hits. The 6-0 final gave the Lions the edge for the series and placed them even with the Bulls in second place.

The Whales faced the Gida in the third and fourth games of a series in Hsinchuang on Friday, winning 6-2, and in Tienmu on Saturday.

Trailing 2-3 in the final game of the series, the Whales knotted the scor at three apiece in the top of the eighth on cleanup man Hung Chi-fong's (洪啟峰) solo blast off Gida reliever Jesus Pena of the Dominican Republic. The Gida would threaten to score in the bottom of the same inning as pinch hitter Huang Kao-jung (黃高俊) led off the inning with a high bouncer up the middle off of Whales reliever Soong Chao-ji (宋肇基) for base hit. Two outs later with men in the corners, Gida shortstop Osmani Estrada struck out, stranding the runners.

The score would remain three-all until the bottom of the ninth before Huang Kao-jung stepped into the batter's box. With two outs and runners on the corners, Huang bounced the pitch from reliever Lin Chao-huang (林朝煌) off the second base bag to bring home the game winning run. The win snapped the Whale's seven-game winning streak and gave Pena his second victory of the season.

President Chen Shuei-bian (陳水扁) was in attendance for the opening game of the three-game series between the Elephants and the First Securities Agan in Hualien on Thursday, where the Elephants rallied to win 7-5.

The Elephants scored a run in each of the first three innings and the Agan tied it all up in the bottom of the third. The Agan took 4-3 lead in the fourth on right fielder Lu Jung-hsiung's (呂俊雄) infield single. The Elephants then put up three runs of their own in the top of the fifth to send Agan starter Ben Burlingame to the showers early.