Taking three straight from the Chinatrust Whales last week, the Sinon Bulls swept their way back atop Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League standings to open up a 1-1/2 game lead over the second-placed Whales.
After winning the series opener 3-1 in Hsinchuang on Wednesday, the defending champions rode on the right arm of starter Lenin Picota, who earned his fifth win of the season after allowing only five hits in seven innings, leading to a 5-2 win in Taichung on Friday.
Picota allowed a run and struck out seven before he was pulled after seven innings in one of his best outings of the year.
Offensively for the Bulls, first baseman Hsu Guo-long's two-run double started a three-run first inning against Whales righty Emiliano Giron that sent the ace of the rotation to his third loss of the year.
Bulls 8, Whales 5
Cheng Jau-han's two-run blast off Whales right-hander Du Chang-wei in the top of the second gave the Bulls a 2-0 lead that they would not relinquish in Saturday's 8-5 victory.
After the Whales reduced the Bulls' lead to 3-2 in the fourth inning on the strength of designated hitter Tseng Han-chou's two-run shot off Bulls starter Kuo Yong-chih, neither club was able to generate much offense.
Then came the game-deciding sixth inning for the Bulls where they rang up four runs on four singles and two costly defensive errors by the Whales to go up 7-2.
Even though the Whales would answer with another pair of runs in the seventh with power slugger Chen Wen-pin's two-run homer, it was too little too late as they dropped their third straight.
Bulls starter Kuo won for the first time this season while his counterpart Du, fell to 3-4.
Lions 5, Bears 1
The President Lions came within a run of sweeping the La New Bears in a four-game series between the two southern Taiwan-based clubs last week.
Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen kicked off the week with an impressive 3-1 win in Tainan on Tuesday before Dominican righty Jose Alberro made it two in a row by tossing two-hit ball for the big cats in a 5-1 final at Kaohsiung on Thursday.
Five different Lions hitters had multiple hits, highlighted by right fielder Chen Lien-hong's three-for-four night.
Lions 9, Bears 10
The Bears had the last laugh in Friday's seesaw battle when second-year "DH Man" Lin Chih-sheng drove a knee-high pitch from Lions reliever Tsao Jung-yang over the left field fence for a solo homer that resulted in a 10-9 win for the Bears.
Lions' RBI machine Israel Alcantara added four more RBIs to his league-best total of 30 when he homered twice against Bears starter Elvin Nina.
Pocketing the victory for the Bears was reliever Hsu Wen-hsiung who won for the first time since last March to snap an eight-game losing skid.
Lions 5, Bears 3
Five ninth-inning runs completed an incredible 5-3 comeback victory for the Lions in Sunday's series finale that had them trailing the entire contest before roaring back for the final kill.
Bears reliever Hsu, the hero from Friday's game, was the goat for the night when he allowed a bases-loaded walk to force in the game-tying run in the top of the ninth before fellow second baseman Shih Chih-wei's fielding error on a routine grounder scored the go-ahead runs for the Lions on the ensuing play.
Hsu negated an otherwise brilliant start by newcomer Matthew Beech of the US (no runs on two hits in five innings) and set-up man Lee Fong-hua's three innings of shutout relief.
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