Mother Nature played a trick on the Chinese Professional Baseball League last weekend as downpours in northern Taiwan rained out games at Hsinchuang between the Brother Elephants and the President Lions on Friday night, and between the Chinatrust Whales and the Sinon Bulls on Saturday night. Both contests were rescheduled for off-days (Mondays) later in May, when the same teams face off again in Hsinchuang.
Rain was about the only thing that could keep balls inside the parks as hitters over the weekend went on a long ball splurge, pounding out a total of 13 homeruns in the four games played.
Starting off the homerun derby was the game between the Bulls and the Whales in Hsinchu on Friday night where two Whales went deep against a shaky Bulls' staff for a pair of dingers each, and the Bulls answered with two blasts of their own for a total of six homers in the game.
Whale right fielder Huang Kwei-yu (
The Macoto Cobras followed their series-opening victory over the La New Bears on Thursday night with two convincing wins to complete their second straight series-sweeps of the Bears.
Game 2 of the three-game series between the two former Taiwan Major League squads in Taichung was a scoreless tie until Cobra cleanup man Willis Otane of the Dominican Republic belted a two-run homer off Bear starter Iriki Satoshi in the bottom of the fourth to give the home Cobras a 2-0 lead.
The Bears would half the lead an inning later by taking Cobra starter Lin Ying-jeh deep to left-center on a solo blast by designated hitter Hsu Yao-yuan.
Taking matters into his own hands, slugger Hsieh Jia-shien crushed an offering from Satoshi for his sixth homer of the season. The three-run shot was his 99th in eight seasons, if one counts the 75 homers that he ripped in the six seasons with the former Agan.
Lin Ying-jeh earned his fourth win of the season for allowing one run on seven hits over eight solid frames in the 5-1 final, while Satoshi suffered his third defeat of the year in a complete-game outing.
Brooms brought in by the Cobra fans in Sunday's series finale were put to good use because the serpents dominated the Bears once again in a 6-1 decision.
Hsieh Jia-shien upped his RBI total to 23 (second-best in the league) with another run batted in what turned out to be a five-RBI week for the former TML batting champ.
Other than the solo blast that he gave up to Bear leadoff man Huang Long-yi (黃龍義), Cobra starter Tsai Shih-ching was magnificent in allowing just three hits over seven innings of work.
The loss ran the Bears' losing skid to a season-high ten games and had skipper Ohda Takushi floundering for answers in a hurry.
Lion veteran Wang Chuang-jia's towering shot off Jonathan Hurst to right-center set the tone in the Lions' 6-4 victory over defending champs the Brother Elephants. The hit came after an error by shortstop Chen Rei-cheng allowed the runner to reach on the previous play.
The five-run fourth for the Lions built a large enough cushion (6-0) to assure starter Pan Wei-luen his fourth win of the season.
Hurst recorded his third loss of the year in a game that could have been a no-decision for him because the Elephant offense later tagged Pan for three runs on a three-run blast by first baseman Wan Jin-yung.
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