Chinatrust Whales newcomer Rusty Meacham stunned the Sinon Bulls on Sunday night with a brilliant two-hit gem to help jumpstart his 2004 Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) campaign on a positive note. The 36-year-old righty from the US backed up his eight-plus seasons of Major League credentiasl with a combination of fastballs and sliders that confused the Bulls' lineup all game long in the 3-0 shutout.
He was also extremely efficient in terms of his pitch count, using only 85 pitches to finish off the slumping Bulls in the complete-game effort.
The victory completed the Whales' three-game sweep of the Bulls, the first series sweep for both teams, and further exposed the problems that last season's first-half champs are experiencing, having lost five of their last eight contests.
As an encore to Saturday night's 2-1 thriller in favor of the Whales, where the winning run was scored on a walk issued by Bulls' set-up man Yu Wen-ping, Sunday's series finale had the Whales scoring all three of their runs against Bull starter Tsai Chung-nan in the bottom of the second on four hits and a costly walk. Even though Tsai would settle in and allow just two more harmless hits until he was pulled in the sixth, the damage had already been done.
In a wild offensive explosion, defending champs the Brother Elephants went deep against the President Lions' staff four times in Saturday's 9-2 decision at Tienmu to salvage a 2-2 tie in the all-important four-game series between the top two clubs in the league.
Down by a game and in danger of losing their first series of the year, Elephant manager Lin Yi-tseng called on American veteran Jonathan Hurst to cool off a red-hot Pan Wei-luen winner of five straight. And Hurst responded by yielding two runs on six hits in seven solid frames to become the first seven-game winner of the year.
Pan, who was rattled by the two homers rung up by the Elephant attack, simply could not handle the pressure as the second-year man faltered for five runs in his fourth defeat of the year.
Offensively for the Elephants, first baseman Tsai Fong-an enjoyed his first multi-homer performance of the season with two dingers for the night: One off Pan for a three-run shot, and the other off Chen Yang-kai for a solo blast.
The Lions took Game 3 in a decisive manner on Friday night after playing to a one-all split in the first two contest earlier last week.
Catcher Chen Cheng-hua's three-run, bases-clearing double off Elephant starter Miguel Martinez helped the Lions build a 5-1 lead after three innings before the two squads settled for a 6-2 final.
American lefty Benj Sampson was not sharp in his first start of the season, allowing two runs on four hits. The four walks issued by the Iowa native prompted skipper Hsieh Chang-hehn to send in reliever Tsao Jung-yang to start the fifth before the righty delivered with four-scoreless innings in the 6-2 final for the win.
The Macoto Cobras feasted off the La New Bears with a pair of sound victories after their struggling closer Huang Chin-chih blew a three-run ninth-inning lead to drop the series opener on Thursday night's 5-6 final.
Game 2 of the three-game series in Kaohsiung on Friday had the serpents cruising to a commanding 5-0 lead after four innings behind an immaculate two-hit, complete-game effort by starter Lin Ying-jeh. The lefty ace continued to dominate opposing hitters with his blazing fastball and a nasty slider that breaks hard and late. The April Pitcher of the Month winner was one wild pitch away from his second straight complete-game shutout in the 6-1 decision when a pitch that sailed wide scored the runner from third in the bottom of the seventh.
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