Bulls gore Bears in Taichung series as Elephants wake up

Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's (張泰山) 4-for-5 night with five RBIs in Sunday's 15-0 trouncing of the Bears capped off a seven-hit, seven-RBI week for the Sinon Bulls' cleanup man, as his team took three of four from the previously red-hot La New Bears to win the series in Taichung.

The potent Bulls attack cooled off Bears rookie starter Wu Si-yo (吳偲佑), winner of his past four starts and the Pitcher of the Month honor in September, by pounding out eight hits for seven runs in five-plus innings.

Starter Yang Jien-fu (陽建福) of the Bulls watched his ERA dip to a league-best 1.67 after his third consecutive victory when he out the Bears for six innings.

The second-year ace now has a record of 12-5 for the season, making him the only bright spot in a shaky rotation.

After a 9-3 series-opening loss on Wednesday, the Bulls fought back with an offensive explosion the next day in a 16-6 final, where they rang up 17 hits against five different Bears hurlers.

All but one Bulls starter had at least one hit in the game, which helped make a winner out of reliever Osvaldo Martinez.

Compared to the 22-run slugfest on Thursday that lasted over three and a-half hours, Friday's Game 3 took only two hours and six minutes to complete as the Bulls downed the Bears 2-1.

The classic pitchers' duel between the Bulls' Kuo Yung-chih (郭勇志) and American righty Chris Wright of the Bears went Kuo's way as the versatile righty from the National Taiwan College of Physical Education four-hit the Bears in 7-1/3 innings before handing the 2-1 lead over to Martinez.

Suffering from a rare lack of run support, Wright dropped to 2-4 for the year as he took the tough loss in the three-hit, complete-game effort.

Taking advantage of their newfound groove, the Brother Elephants won three of four in their series against the Chinatrust Whales to keep their playoff hopes alive.

The defending champs lost four straight games and seven of eight during a recent stretch that had the Elephants fans wondering if their beloved team would stumble in their quest for an unprecedented four titles in a row.

Other than the 18-3 blowout defeat at the hands of the Whales in Game 3 on Friday, the Elephants regained their unstoppable form with a combined scoring margin of 23-9 in their three victories.

Saturday afternoon's 11-5 win in Tienmu marked starter Jonathan Hurst's 15th for the year, giving the 38-year-old former Major Leaguer a three-game cushion over local aces Yang Jien fu of the Bulls and lefty Lin Ying-jeh (林英傑) of the Macoto Cobras for the most victories this season.

Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-ming's (彭政閔) two-run, opposite-field blast kept him in pace with Chang Tai-shan of the Bulls for the league lead in most homers with 16, as the slumping slugger connected for three hits in four at-bats to hold his average at .376.

The league-leading President Lions avenged their series-opening shutout loss to the Cobras with a pair of impressive wins to end the week 2-1.

Following their 5-0 loss to the serpents on Thursday that featured a season-high four errors by the Lions, the big cats regrouped and blanked the Cobras in Saturday's game in Hsinchuang.

Starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen (潘威倫) scattered four hits in seven scoreless innings before closer Michael Garcia took the mound with two innings of shutout relief work, giving him a league-leading 24 saves in 25 opportunities.