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Macoto Cobras slither past Elephants

Macoto Cobras closer Rene Miniel puts pressure on the Brother Elephants in Wednesday's game. The Dominican righty has come under fire for blowing three saves in as many weeks. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MACOTO COBRAS

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.

Upcoming Contests

The Cobras and the Elephants will move their battle down south to Chiayi tonight before tomorrow's series finale.

The Sinon Bulls were to take on the Whales in Games 1 and 2 of their three-game set in Taichung yesterday and tonight, before moving north to Tienmu for Sunday's contest.

The Bears will play host to the President Lions in a three-game home stand in Kaohsiung, which started with yesterday's series opener. The second and third games are tomorrow and Sunday.
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