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Relievers fail the Bulls as Elephants control series

Late-inning relief pitching continued to be a problem for the Sinon Bulls last weekend after they surrendered seventh and eighth-inning leads on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to gift wrap the games for the Brother Elephants with finals of 10-6 and 8-3.

The Bulls began both contests with a bang by scoring first-inning runs. The jumped to a 3-0 lead in the third inning in Game 1 and a 2-0 lead in the fifth in Game 2.

In the top of the seventh during the first game the Elephants lineup erupted for five unanswered runs against Bulls relievers Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南) and Gustavo Lopez, turning a 6-3 deficit into an 8-6 lead.

After yielding back-to-back singles to the Elephants, Tsai would walk the third and final batter he faced to load up the bags before Lopez came into the game.

Elephants slugger Chen "The Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan (陳致遠) got all of the second pitch from Lopez, for a grand slam, giving his team the lead for good.

American starter Jeff Andra took a 3-1 lead into the eighth on Sunday before being relieved by set-up man Yu Wen-bin (余文彬).

Two batters and an Elephants run later, cleanup man Peng Cheng-ming (彭政閔) belted a league-leading sixth homer for the season, this one also a grand slam, doubling their lead over the Bulls at 6-3.

Foreign starters Nakagomi Sin, Jonathan Hurst, and Yokota Hisanori all earned a win in the Elephants' three-game sweep of the Bulls, although they were not as sharp as they had been in the previous week.

Lions versus Bears

President Lions fans also enjoyed a sweep as their team took four straight from the La New Bears last week.

First baseman Tseng Yang-chih's (曾揚志) run-scoring single in the top of the sixth on Friday night was the difference in the game as starter Pan Wei-luen (潘威倫) pitched eight scoreless innings to combine with closer Michael Garcia for the 3-0 shutout victory.

Saturday's series finale between the two clubs was one for the record books as Lions veteran Chen Cheng-hsien (陳政賢) pounded a pair of home runs over the leftfield fence for eight RBIs and the game-MVP honor.

The two blasts marked Chen's 99th and 100th home runs in an illustrious career that began 15 seasons ago.

Chen became only the fifth player in league history to break the 100-homer plateau.

Whales versus Cobras

The Chinatrust Whales avoided being swept by the league-leading Macoto Cobras in their three-game series by taking Game 3 in Taichung on Sunday afternoon in a 4-3 thriller, after Friday night's 12-3 laugher as the Whales ended up beached.

Leftfielder Kuo Dai-yung's (郭岱詠) solo blast started the Whales' two-run sixth inning to reduce the Cobra lead to 3-2. Third baseman Chen Jien-wei's (陳健偉) line-drive double off Cobras ace closer Huang Chin-chih (黃欽智) two innings later would make it 3-3 before shortstop Cheng Chang-ming (鄭昌明) came through in the last at-bat for the game-clinching hit.

Whales closer Dario Veras got the rare win for the Whales while his counterpart Huang blew his first save of the season.
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