Close plays dominated this week's Chinese Professional Baseball League action in the early going as teams played to three straight one-run games to give fans their money's worth.
The Sinon Bulls kicked off the week with a 2-1 thriller over the Macoto Cobras in Taichung on Tuesday, where the Bulls' third-year righty Tsai Chung-nan outpitched his counterpart Hsu Chu-jien in a classic pitchers' duel for his first win of the season.
The two former first-round draft picks, Tsai in 2003 and Hsu in the former Taiwan Major League's 2000 draft, were magnificent in handling opposing hitters, allowing six hits apiece in six and eight innings, respectively.
Other than the Cobras' Deng Shih-yang, who accounted for three of the six hits against Tsai, the Bulls' starter was in full command of his pitches.
Offensively for the home Bulls, third baseman Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and designated hitter Wang Shih-hua each knocked home a run off Hsu in a two-run fourth inning that turned out to be the difference in the game.
With a slim 2-1 lead, Bulls' skipper Liu Rong-hua took no chances with his set-up men and went directly with his ace closer Hector Ramirez in the seventh inning in an attempt to wrap up the win.
And Ramirez promptly responded with three shutout frames for his third save of the year.
Bears 7, Elephants 6
Thursday's confrontation between the Brother Elephants and the La New Bears in Kaohsiung had the Elephants jumping to a quick 6-1 lead after four innings of play on the strength of right fielder Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-ming's solo shot to deep right-center in the second inning and center fielder Chen Huai-shan's 3-for-5 hitting, before the Bears roared back with five runs in the final two innings to lose the 7-6 decision in front of the 2,000-plus fans on hand.
The Bears nearly pulled off a come-from-behind win in the bottom of the ninth when second baseman Shih Chih-wei's run-scoring single got the home team to within a run of the Elephants with one out and two runners on base. But a failure to convert on a two-out, bases-loaded situation by outfielder Chang Ming-yen cost the Bears the game.
Elephants starter Ichiro Motojun allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits for his second victory in as many starts, while veteran right-hander Cory Bailey of the Bears pocketed the loss to fall to 2-2 for the year.
Whales 2, Lions 1
A two-run Whales' sixth, featuring two defensive errors and a wild pitch on behalf of the President Lions, made a loser out of American starter Doug Linton in Thursday's 2-1 Whales' victory at Chiayi.
The 40-year-old former Major Leaguer allowed two runs, both unearned, on five hits over seven strong innings in a performance that would have easily qualified for a win if it were not for left fielder Wang Chuan-jia's inability catch a routine fly ball to start off the bottom of the sixth. Poor lighting was the culprit for Wang's miscue as the ball fell to the ground after it hit Wang's arm to put the leadoff runner on second base.
Whales starter Emiliano Giron was credited with the win while rookie set-up man Shen Yu-jeh and closer Dario Veras pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, for their league-leading fourth hold and fifth save of the season.
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