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'Du Du' racks up three straight 10-win seasons

Sinon Bulls slugger Hsu Guo-long looks on after going deep against the Cobras in Tuesday's game at Luodong. The Cobras won 4-2. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SINON BULLS

Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen became the first man to rack up three consecutive 10-win seasons with a 4-0 complete-game shutout victory over the Chinatrust Whales in Tainan on Tuesday night.

The former first-round draft pick and 2003 Rookie of the Year for the President Lions struck out nine while walking none in one of his best outings of the season. None of the eight scattered hits that he allowed came with a runner in scoring position, cementing Pan's growing stature as clutch player.

Cleanup man Darryl Brinkley got the big cats on the board with a monstrous solo home run off Whales starter Tseng Jau-hao in the bottom of the second before the home hosts upped their lead to 2-0 in the fourth on first baseman Kao Guo-ching's run-scoring single to shallow-right.

Hot-hitting second baseman Yang Seng made it 3-0 in the fifth with a chopper to short that the Whales' Cheng Chang-ming could not field cleanly, and Yang Dong-yi knocked in the Lions' fourth run in the eighth to conclude all the scoring for the night.

The game was not as lopsided as the final score would indicate, with the Whales ringing up eight hits off Pan. However, their inability to come up with a base hit with runners in scoring position (four) ultimately stranded eight for the game in the tough loss.

Whales 8, Lions 7

Game 2 of the series on Wednesday was a classic seesaw battle with five lead changes and featuring four homers between the two squads in a 22-hit slugfest.

The 8-7 decision in favor of the marine creatures actually had the home Lions jumping to an early 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first on the strength of Brinkley's RBI single and outfielder Lin "Wild Hog" Hong-yuan's two-run double up the middle.

Down by a pair, the Whales would answer immediately with scoring drives by game-MVP Tseng Han-chou and catcher Shih Jin-sho in the top of the second to even things up at 3-all before taking a 5-3 lead by the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single again from Tseng and Shih respectively.

Back-to-back hits by the Lions' Kao and Lin Hong-yuan knotted the match up at 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth before the Whales regained an 8-5 advantage with long balls from Tseng, who chalked up a two-run blast in the seventh, and Chi Jung-lin, who scored a solo shot in the eighth.

Wang Chuan-jia's two-run homer off Whales closer Dario Veras cut the Whales' lead to 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth, but that was as close as they would get as Veras quickly clamped down and preserved the win by retiring the next three Lions in order for his league-leading 22nd save of the year.

Reliever Chu Wei-ming picked up the win for the Whales with 2-1/3 frames of scoreless relief, while his counterpart Kao Long-wei was hit with the loss for serving up the homers by Tseng and Chi.

Cobras 4, Bulls 2

Eight solid innings by lefty ace Lin Ying-jeh carried the Macoto Cobras past the league-leading Bulls for a 4-2 win in a makeup game at Luodong on Tuesday.

Other than yielding a pair of hits in each of the first two innings, including a high pitch that the Bulls' Hsu Guo-long smashed for a solo bomb in the second inning, the ERA king of last season was brilliant the rest of the way in retiring 19 of the next 21 batters he faced before calling it a night after the eighth.

Skipper Kuo Tai-yuan sent an all-local lineup onto the field for the first time this season due to the loss of home-run threat Mario Encarnacion to sudden death and the absence of slugger Wilton Veras for not being mentally prepared to play following the tragic death of his close teammate and friend.

Offensively for the serpents, third baseman Hsu "Bitter Melon" Sheng-jeh led the attack with a 3-for-4 night with an RBI while cleanup man Hsieh Jia-shien broke out of a recent 1-for-27 slump with a 1-for-3 night, also with an RBI.

Sinon starter Lenin Picota pitched well enough for a chance to add to his league-best 15th win in allowing four runs (only two earned) on eight hits over five innings, but fell victim to a lack of run support in his seventh loss of the season.

Upcoming games

With just two games separating five of the six teams in the latest standings, the remaining two weeks of play will sure to provide all the late-season drama that the fans have not seen in recent years.

The Bulls lost some ground during the week with their loss to the Cobras on Tuesday and could lose their slim, one-game lead over the serpents should they falter in the remaining three contests against Macoto this week, starting with yesterday's game in Hsinchu, tonight's game in Hsinchuang and Sunday's series finale at Tienmu.

As for the third-placed Elephants, their three-game set versus the La New Bears in Hsinchuang on Thursday and Sunday, with Game 2 in Tienmu on Saturday sandwiched in the middle, could mean the difference between a postseason berth and an early offseason.

The Cobras will take on Whales in a three-game set starting with Thursday's series opener at Hsinchuang before tonight's rematch and Sunday's series finale in Tienmu.

The Lions will finish their four-game home stand against the Whales in Tainan with Game 3 tonight, before they wrap it up with tomorrow's contest.
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