CPBL

Osvaldo Martinez's made local baseball history on Thursday at Hsinchuang by beating the Brother Elephants 6-1 for his 101st career victory.

It was the third attempt by the Sinon Bulls' fireballer from the Dominican Republics to break Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League record for most wins after he had tied it earlier this season.

Beating the Elephants, the Bulls' archrivals from northern Taiwan on his record-setting night, was just icing on the cake for Martinez as he looks to add to his already-impressive career victory total with each win from this point on.

The game between the nation's two most popular squads began with the Elephants drawing first blood in the bottom of the second inning on cleanup man Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-ming's solo blast to straight-away center off Martinez for an early 1-0 lead.

Then came the defending champion's three-run fourth which started with second baseman Huang "Brother Tung" Chung-yi's run-scoring single, before power slugger Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's two-run shot to center-right made it 3-1 in favor of the Bulls.

The score would remain 3-1 until the top of the ninth when Bulls' right fielder Chang Jia-hao and leadoff man Tseng Hua-wei knocked home three more runs with an RBI liner to left and a two-run, stand-up double, respectively, in the 6-1 final.

Martinez allowed the lone Elephants run for the game by allowing four hits over seven strong innings for the win, while his counterpart Ichiri Muto suffered his first setback of the season to fall to 3-1 for the year.

Cobras 8, Lions 1

Macoto Cobras' rookie right-hander Lin En-yu earned his second win as a pro on Thursday in Pingtong with an impressive complete-game effort that was one out away from being a shutout.

The 8-1 decision over the President Lions carried a special label in that most of the serpents' scoring was done by a pair of former Lions who were released during the offseason.

Left fielder Ko Jien-fong made sure the Lions would regret the decision to let him go with his first home run of the season in the bottom of the third when he drove a pitch from Lions starter Lin Yueh-ping over the right field fence to give the Cobras a quick 2-0 lead.

Four runs and four innings later, designated hitter Luo Ming-ching would add another homer to his career total of 109 when launched a towering shot to deep-right off former teammate Tsao Jung-yang to give the Cobras a commanding 8-0 lead.

The 16-year veteran also proved the Lions' decision to release him imprudent after he had selflessly spent his entire career up to that point with the big cats.

The loss by Lin Yueh-ping was his first of the season.

The Lions' first-round draft pick in 2005 is now 2-1 in the nine game appearances (four starts).

Bears 6, Whales 3

The La New Bears started off the week with a 6-3 win over the second-placed Chinatrust Whales to snap their previous six-game winless streak.

It took a three-run fourth inning by the Bears to turn an early 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead, highlighted by shortstop Lin Chih-sheng's solo homer and catcher Chen Fong-ming's double that sent both runners home.

Rookie Bears starter Hsu Chih-hua pocketed his first career victory with a solid performance, allowing three runs (all unearned) on seven hits over six innings.

Whales 6, Bears 1

Tseng Han-chou's three-RBI night was more than ample to lead the Whales past the home Bears for a 6-1 win in Game 2 of their four-game series this week.