Following two weeks of close competition in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, where 10 of the first 21 games have been decided by one run and 15 decided by three or fewer runs, the winners of last week's games all decisively beat their opponents.
Once again playing like the former champs of the Taiwan Major League, the Macoto Cobras showed no mercy against the La New Bears in their 4-0 series sweep right in the Bears.
The Cobras followed two easy victories earlier in the week with an impressive 8-0, shutout win on Friday night before Saturday night's 6-2 series clincher.
Friday night's contest became the Hsieh Jia-shien hitting clinic, as last season's runner-up in the homerun race teed off against Bear starter Hsu Wen-hsiung for a rare out-of-the-ballpark blast. Hsieh's four-RBI performance clearly made him the unanimous choice for the game-MVP honor.
Cobras starter Kleber Ojima pitched three-and-a-half scoreless innings before leaving the game with a blistered finger in his pitching hand, forgoing what would have easily been his second victory of the season. Reliever Lee Ming-jing took the mound in the middle of the fourth and no-hit the Bears in the next four-and-two-thirds innings for his first win of the year.
Saturday night's series clincher had the Cobras out in front by four runs after just four frames, before it ended in a 6-2 final.
The Cobras were extremely efficient in their run production, scoring six runs on 11 hits against five Bear pitchers, while the hosting Bears only managed to cross home plate twice on the nine hits that they pounded off three different Cobras pitchers.
Starter Yang Chi-jia worked five solid innings by allowing one unearned run on five hits for his second win of the season for the Cobras, as his counterpart Liang Rue-hao became the league's first three-game loser with another below-par showing on the mound.
Offensively for the Cobras, shortstop Willis Otanez of the Dominican Republic busted loose with a 3-for-5 night that drove in three of the Cobras six runs.
The 31-yaer-old former major leaguer currently leads the league with seven doubles for the year.
In other action, the Sinon Bulls began their three-game series against the Chinatrust Whales with a 9-all tie in Hsinchu last Thursday, before taking Game 2 in Hsinchuang on Friday night and Game 3 in Tienmu on Sunday afternoon with scores of 7-3 and 4-2 respectively.
Thursday night's 9-all draw featured three lead changes as the offense on both squads lit up the scoreboard. The Whales jumped to an early 4-0 lead in the second before the Bulls returned the favor and took a 5-4 lead in the fifth.
Short stop Cheng Chang-ming would give the Whales their second lead of the night on his run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth, after fellow first baseman Wang Huan-hao had tied it up with an one-hopper that found its way to shallow right an inning earlier.
The Bulls would regain the lead in a four-run seventh, capped by short stop Cheng Jau-hahn's two-run double, only to see the Whales get two runs back in the bottom of the same innings and tie it up at 9-9 in the eighth.
American lefty Jeff Andra got the win for the Bulls in Game 2 on Friday night as the heart of the order for the Bulls did most of the damage against the Whales by driving in five of the seven runs in the game.
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