Chinatrust Whales ace hurler Nakayama Hiroaki closed out his 2003 campaign with a bang in Saturday night's 4-3 thriller against the high-flying Brother Elephants in Tienmu.
The Japanese veteran put on a show in his farewell game by holding a powerful Elephant lineup scoreless in the last five innings of the game to record his 13th victory of the season.
The win not only put a stop to the Elephants' 10-game unbeaten streak, it prevented the Whales from being swept by Elephants in the four-game series.
Aside allowing three early runs through the first four, Nakayama was brilliant in his four-hit, complete-game effort. Expecting the birth of his first child in Japan early next month, Nakayama received special approval from Whale officials to return home early, since the Whales will not be playing in the postseason this year.
Elephant Yokota Hisanori failed to add to his league-leading 16-game victory total in a losing effort as the Whales took advantage of two key defensive miscues by the Elephants to score two unearned runs against the right-hander.
Game of the series between the two teams in Hsinchunag on Friday was a blowout as the Elephants took a 10-2 lead four frames into the game and finished with a final score of 11-5.
Elephants Wu Jung-yi (吳俊億) ran his record to 9-1 for the season as he held the Whale offense to two runs on three hits over six strong innings.
Wu's slow delivery, which differs greatly from the rest of the Elephant pitchers' styles, was effective against the Whale lineup because it disrupted their timing throughout the game.
Offensively the Elephants, the night belonged to first baseman Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安), whose four RBIs earned him the game-MVP honor.
The Makoto Gida's four-game series against first-half champs the Sinon Bulls began with an impressive 8-4 victory on Wednesday night, but went south from that point on.
Thursday night's three-all draw should have been a win for the Gida if it were not for Bull second baseman Huang Chung-yi's (黃忠義) game-tying single off reliever Lee Ming-chin (李明進) at the top of the eighth.
The highlight of the series, and perhaps for the season, was Bull slugger Chang Tai-shan's (張泰山) 27th homer of the season in Saturday night's 8-5 triumph against the Gida in Hsinchu.
Chang a new mark for local players in the single-season home-run total when he launched an offering from Gida reliever Jose Hernandez to deep left to put the game out of reach for the Gida.
Bull Osvaldo Martinez got the win for the first time in over three weeks after the Dominican strikeout artist yielded four runs in 5-1/3 innings while fanning five.
Martinez well in both of his previous starts, giving up a combined three earned runs in 15-plus innings, but failed to register the win due to the lack of run support in both contests.
Sunday afternoon's series finale in Hsinchuang ended in a 4-0 shutout in favor of the Bulls as the first-half champs blanked their opponents for a league-high 15th time this season.
In the interest of resting his pitching staff for the postseason, Bull skipper Chen Wei-cheng (陳威成) sent reserve starter Ho Chi-shien (何紀賢) to the mound in search of his fourth win of the season.
The lefty from Taipei County more than answered the call as he allowed no runs on three hits and struck out five in as many innings to record his fourth win of the season.
The star of the game on offense for the Bulls was shortstop Cheng Jau-han (鄭兆行), who pocketed the game-MVP honor by leading all hitters with three hits and two RBI's.
The second-placed President Lions kept their title hope alive as they won the first two games of the three-game series against First Securities Agan in Kaohsiung on Thursday and Friday night by scores of 5-2 and 5-1 respectively.
Late-comers John Frascatore and Jose Parra each pitched a gem for the Lions as they went eight and seven innings deep respectively to help keep a fatigued Lion bullpen fresh for the final two weeks of the season.
The series finale on Sunday was suspended after two innings of play due to heavy rain in the Kaohsiung area and will resume on Monday as the two teams square off for the last time this season.
With the magic number for the Elephants down to one, any combination of an Elephant win or Lion loss would clinch the second-half title and a date with the Bulls in the postseason for the defending champs.
