Lee "Rambo Junior" Chih-jeh's two-run double off Macoto Cobras closer Rene Miniel helped spark a five-run eighth for the Brother Elephants in Hsinchu on Wednesday as they rallied past the Cobras to win by a 5-2 margin.
Game-loser Hsu Chu-jien, the Cobras starter who blanked the Elephants through the first seven innings in a four-hit effort, saw his shutout bid destroyed two outs into the eighth, when the Elephants' Wang Jin-yong drilled a pitch from him deep into the right-center gap that scored the runner all the way from first for an RBI triple that cut the Cobras lead by a half to 2-1.
After Hsu issued another walk to leave the game with two on, Miniel took over the mound and immediately loaded the bases with another walk before surrendering back-to-back scoring drives, good for a pair of runs each, to put the Elephants ahead for good.
Elephants starter Bronswell Patrick picked his fourth win of the season to improve to a 4-1 mark with eight solid innings of work, allowing both Cobras runs on a wild pitch in the sixth and a solo home run to the Cobras' Chiou Chang-rong in the seventh. He allowed six hits and fanned seven while walking two.
The blown save by Miniel was his third in as many weeks, putting the once-dominant Cobras ace closer on the spot in exposing a weakness that the rest of the league will be sure to exploit. Since their amazing undefeated run last month (11-0-1), the first-half champs have been humbled by a 2-5-4 (tie) record in the 11 contests in August thus far.
"There is definitely something about him [Miniel] that is different, ever since we lost the game to the Lions that forced the one-game playoff. Maybe it's a confidence thing, maybe it's something else," a source close to the Cobras' front office said on condition of anonymity.
Cobras 12, Elephants 6
The Cobras doubled up on the Elephants in their series opener at Hsinchuang on Tuesday in a 12-6 slugfest that featured 26 hits between the two clubs.
Cobras free swinger Hsieh "the ugly" Jia-shien upped his league-best home run total to 20 for the season with a full swing in the opening frame that deposited an offering from Elephants starter Nakagomi Sin into the left field bleachers for a two-run, opposite-field shot.
Hsieh also extended his lead in total RBIs to nine (57) over Chinatrust Whales' Tseng Han-chou (48) and Victor Rodriguez of the La New Bears (48).
The serpents padded their early 2-0 lead with a three-run fourth on the strength of consecutive RBI singles by Chen Yuan-jia and Kuo Ming-ren and a fielding error by Elephants first baseman Tsai Fong-an that scored the runner from third for a comfortable 5-0 cushion.
After the Elephants answered with two runs in the top of the fifth to make it 5-2, the Cobras offense quickly went to work again by ringing up seven more runs in the next three innings off a generous Elephants staff that used three different relief pitchers over the same span.
Although the Elephants finally made it somewhat respectable with a four-run ninth off Cobras reliever Tsai Shih-chin, the game was a foregone conclusion long before the final out.
Starter Yang Chi-jia won for the second time this year in a rare start with seven strong innings of two-run ball, while his counterpart Sin fell victim to a machine gun-like attack that poured on the runs against the Japanese veteran in his sixth loss of the season.
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