Two consecutive late-game surges by the La New Bears led to a pair of impressive victories over the Brother Elephants as the Bears won the three-game series 2-1 last week in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League.
The road wins, coupled with a shaky, 1-3 week by the league-leading Sinon Bulls, have pulled the Bears to within a game of the league leaders and has made legitimate title contenders out of a team that finished dead last in the first half of the season with a 16-2-32 record.
Thursday night's 9-1 win at Sinjhuang was a 4-0 affair in favor of the Bears until a five-run ninth, highlighted by second baseman Lin Chih-sheng's two-run triple, that boosted the Bears' lead to 9-0.
PHOTO: CPBL
It took a two-out infield single by the Elephants' Hsu Chih-wei in the bottom of the ninth to score the runner from third, breaking up a shutout bid for the Bears, but that did not keep starter Chris Wright from recording his sixth win of the season in a solid outing off the mound.
Elephants starter Wu Jung-yi suffered his first setback of the year after allowing three runs on seven hits in five innings.
Bears 8, Elephants 1
Game 2 of the series at Tienmu on Saturday had the Bears hanging onto a narrow 2-1 lead until a six-run ninth blew the contest wide open.
Third baseman Eduardo Rios's three-run homer off Elephants reliever Nakagomi Sin capped off the six-run ninth in which the Bears batted around the order.
Six different Bears players had multiple hits, helping starter Hsu Wen-hsiung secure his fourth win of the year.
The normal reliever for the Bears made the most of just his fourth start in 47 game appearances by snapping up the victory with 6-1/3 innings of five-hit ball, allowing only one run.
Elephants starter Muto Ichiro allowed five hits and two runs in 6-2/3 in the loss.
Bears 1, Elephants 2
Rios's costly fielding error on a would-be, inning-ending grounder scored a runner from second base for the Elephants' second run in the fourth inning that ended up being the game-winner in Sunday's series finale in Sinjhuang.
Rookie right-hander Chuang Hong-liang retired all eight of the Bears he faced, -- logging five strikeouts in 2-2/3 innings of perfect relief work for his first career game-MVP honor.
He entered the game just after the Bears scored a run, cutting a 2-0 lead in half in the top of the sixth, and promptly retired the next two batters to strand the runners on first and second.
Bears starter Wu Si-yo was tagged with the loss for allowing both of the Elephants runs (one earned) in 4-1/3 innings of work as he dropped to 6-6 for the year.
Elephants righty Liu Jung-nan improved to 2-1.
Both benches approached the field after Bears reliever Hsu Chih-hua hit Hsu Ming-lan with a pitch, but other than an exchange of light shoves between Bears manager Hung Yi-chung and Elephants third base coach Wu Si-shien, there were no serious fouls committed.
Other CPBL Games
The Macoto Cobras grabbed a one-game lead in the standings for two days with three straight wins over the Bulls last week, but fell right back into a tie with the Bulls atop the standings following Sunday's tough 1-0 loss against the Bulls.
Starters Lenin Picota for the Bulls and Lin Ying-jeh for the Cobras both turned in nine shutout innings before the Bulls went ahead in the top of the 10th on second baseman Chang "Red Monkey" Jia-hao's RBI single off Cobras reliever Lin En-yu.
Bulls reliever Jorge Cortez allowed the leadoff man to reach first to start off the bottom of the 10th, then managed to put away the next three Cobras to preserve Picota's league-best 16th win of the season.
The win not only prevented the Bulls from being swept by the serpents, but it also kept them from taking a two-game lead over the Bulls.
Also showing signs of title contention were the President Lions with their 3-1 series victory over the Chinatrust Whales.
The big cats defended their home turf by beating the marine creatures with a pair of 5-2 wins in Tainan after the two teams had split the first two contests of their four-game set last week.
Closer Mike Garcia picked up two saves in both Lions wins to come within a save of the Whales' Dario Veras, who leads the league in total saves with 22 for the year.
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