Oh Brother! Elephants do it again

Extending their non-losing streak against the First Securities Agan to 19, the Brother Elephants finished off the week strongly with three straight victories.

The four-game series began with a 3-3 tie on Wednesday night in Kaohsiung, where the Elephant offense had a rare off night. Trailing 3-1, the big bat of Elephant first baseman Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安) sent an offering from Agan reliever Hsu Wen-hsiung (許文雄) all the way to the left-center bleachers for a game-tying two-run blast. It was Tsai's 10th homer of the year.

Friday night's 5-1 victory in favor of the Elephants marked starter Yokota Hisanori's league-leading 14th win of the season. The former star of the Japanese big league, the Nippon Professional Baseball League, allowed no runs on three hits over six outstanding innings before the bullpen sealed the victory for him late in the game.

Agan starter Gabriel Ozuna of the Dominican Republic cruised through the first five innings, holding a powerful Elephant lineup scoreless, before running into trouble in the sixth.

After allowing the leadoff runner to reach on a sharp liner to left-center for a triple, Ozuna yielded a two-run shot to Elephant left fielder Lin Ming-hsian (林明憲), his second dinger of the year. Before Ozuna realized what had hit him, another run crossed the plate on a pair of singles and a wild pitch.

The Agan avoided the shutout by scoring their lone run of the game in the bottom of the eighth on pinch hitter Lee Yi-pao's (李以寶) RBI single. Due to the rainout on Tuesday, the two clubs battled in a day-night doubleheader on Saturday when the Elephants triumphed in both contests by the scores of 3-1 and 7-3.

The week's most anticipated series between the President Lions and the Sinon Bulls lived up to expectations on Thursday night, when the two teams played to a 4-all draw in Taichung.

After four scoreless innings, the home Bulls struck first on first baseman Chueh Shu-mu's (闕樹木) sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth. The Bulls would make it 3-0 in the seventh on a pair of RBI singles by Chueh and second baseman Huang Chung-yi (黃忠義).

The streaky Lions finally awoke in the top of the eighth as they rallied for four runs of their own.

The lead proved to be short-lived because the home Bulls forced the game into extra innings on a two-out game-tying single by left fielder Kao Chien-lung (高健龍).

Game 2 of the series also began with the Bulls scoring first on third baseman Chang Tai-shan's (張泰山) league-high 20th homer of the year. Chang's solo shot gave the Bulls the lead until the seventh, when Lion right fielder Chen Lien-hung (陳連宏) returned the favor by taking Bull starter Osvaldo Martinez out of the yard for a two-run shot. Chen's homer turned out to be the game-winner because Lion starter Jose Parra kept the Bulls off the board the rest of the way to claim the narrow 2-1 victory.

Like the series opener, the series finale in Hsinchu on Sunday also went to extra innings before the Lions pulled away with a 4-2 win in the 10th.

The seesaw battle began with the Bulls striking first again for a one-run lead in the first and the Lions tying it up in the fourth. The Bulls then made it 2-1 in the sixth on shortstop Cheng Jau-han's (鄭兆行) solo homer, just to see the Lions level it again at 2-2 on catcher Tseng Chih-cheng's (曾智偵) two-out RBI single.