Lions work to chase down Bulls

Second baseman Yang Seng of the Lions won back-to-back game-MVP honors with his red-hot bat during two victories over the Elephants last week. PHOTO: PRESIDENT LIONS

A pair of impressive wins over the second-place Brother Elephants last week have brought the President Lions right back in the title hunt as they trail the league-leading Sinon Bulls by three games with nine games left to play in the season.

In a typhoon-shortened, two-game series against the Elephants in Tainan, the big cats beat their archrivals 7-3 in Thursday's series opener before Saturday's nail-biting 6-4, come-from-behind thriller.

Lions second baseman Yang Seng won his second straight game-MVP honor with a two-run double off Elephants closer Wu Bao-shien after Wu had balked to score the tying run from third, breaking a 4-4 tie in a three-run eighth that put the Lions ahead for good in the 6-4 win on Saturday.

After jumping to an early 2-0 lead with RBI singles from shortstop Yang Dong-yi and catcher Kao Cheng-hua off Elephants starter Jonathan Hurst during the first and second innings, the home Lions found themselves behind 3-2 in the top of the sixth when starter Jose Espinal allowed a bases-loaded walk and a two-run single to the Elephants' Wang Jin-yong.

The Elephants lost their lead in the bottom of the same inning when Hurst served up a solo homer to Lions outfielder Chen Lien-hong to knot things up at 3-3 before they reclaimed it in the seventh on the strength of catcher Chen Rei-chan's one-run single.

An unspecified injury to his pitching arm forced Hurst to leave the game prematurely in the seventh, bringing in Wu, who held the Lions scoreless for an inning before Yang Seng's late-game drive scored the game-winner for the Lions.

Lions setup man Kao Long-wei picked up the win for his 1-1/3 innings of perfect relief, while Wu dropped to 7-3 with the loss.

Lions 7, Elephants 3

Yang Seng also went home with the game-MVP honor in the Lions' 7-3 series-opening win on Thursday after knocking in what would be the game-winning run during the fourth inning with a clean, two-run double off Elephants reliever Liu Yi-chuan.

The Lions' leadoff man ended 2-for-5 for the night with two RBIs.

Rookie righty Lin Yueh-ping kept the Elephants to a lone run over 3-2/3 innings of two-hit relief for his seventh win of the year after a mediocre outing by starter Leo Estrella, who allowed a pair of runs on five hits over 3-1/3 innings of work.

Elephants starter Liu Jung-nan was tagged with the loss for surrendering the first three Lions runs (one earned) on five hits over three innings.

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The La New Bears played to a close 2-2 series split in their four-game set against the Bulls to keep their postseason hopes alive.

After splitting the first two contests against the Bulls, the Bears came out firing in Friday's match by putting five runs on the board for starter Nerio Rodriguez through the first six innings, highlighted by right fielder Tsai Jien-wei's two-run single in the top of the sixth.

Every run was needed in the 5-4 win after the Bulls scored three times in the seventh inning on first baseman Hsu Guo-long's three-run blast off Rodriguez to make it 5-3 before adding another run in the eighth to cut the Bears' lead to just a run.

Reliever Hsu Wen-hsiung earned his sixth save of the season, preserving win No. 2 for Rodriguez, while Bulls starter Clinton Hosford took the tough loss.

The game marked the first time this season that the Bulls did not win in which Hsu Guo-long had homered.

They had been 7-0 in the seven games where Hsu had gone deep with a long ball.

Bulls 3, Bears 2

After losing Friday's game by a narrow 5-4 margin, the defending champs immediately returned the favor on the following night by beating the Bears 3-2 to salvage a 2-2 tie in the four-game series.

The Bulls took a 3-0 shutout one out into the eighth on seven solid innings of work from starter Osvaldo Martinez (five innings) and reliever Yang Jien-fu (two innings) before things began to head south.

Three singles by the Bears hitters following a one-out walk issued by Yang brought in two runs, closing the gap to 3-2.

But that was as close as the Bears would get, thanks to a game-ending double play turned by the Bulls defense with the tying run in scoring position.

Martinez made good on his first start in two months, pocketing his 11th win, while Wu Si-yo took his fifth loss of the season.