Cobras in Taiwan Series

The Macoto Cobras wasted no time in securing their first Taiwan Series appearance in franchise history by downing the President Lions 4-2 in Game 4 of their playoff series on Tuesday to win the best-of-five event 3-1.

Facing potential elimination, the home Lions sent Game 1 starter Jose Espinal to the mound to take on Yang Chi-jia of the Cobras in the hope of forcing a deciding Game 5 in Tainan.

But the Dominican righty, who pitched a five-hit gem in the series-opener despite taking the tough loss, could not equal his earlier brilliance. Espinal allowed three hits in the second inning to give the Cobras an early 1-0 lead.

After scoreless third and fourth innings, the Cobras added a pair of runs to their lead in the fifth inning on the strength of outfielder Chiou Chang-rong's RBI ground-out and cleanup man Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien's two-out single up the middle to build a seemingly comfortable 3-0 cushion.

Held to only two hits over six shutout innings against a flagging Yang, the Lions finally made their move in the seventh inning against Cobras reliever Hsu Chu-jien, who surrendered a single and a run-producing double, on top of a walk to start off the inning, before recording his first out on a sacrifice bunt.

Leading 3-1 with runners on second and third, Cobras manager Kuo Tai-yuan called for lefty reliever Lin Ying-jeh, who struck out the next batter before giving up a base hit for the Lions' second run of the game.

It took a picture-perfect throw by Hsieh from the shallow-center to gun down the would-be tying run at the plate, leaving the Cobras with a narrow 3-2 advantage.

"He [Hsieh] really came up huge for us tonight," Kuo said after the game. "Besides playing a role in two of our four runs [scoring one and knocking in the other] on the offensive end, he also stopped the tying run from scoring with that cannon arm which ended their scoring threat."

The Cobras added an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning on catcher Wu Jau-hui's ground-out to second base that scored the runner from third to give his club a 4-2 lead, leaving the rest up Lin Ying-jeh who pitched hitless eighth and ninth innings to seal the victory.

It was Lin's third appearance in the four-game series, netting the regular-season strikeout king two wins and a save.

On a night when at least three Cobras players were deserving of the game-MVP honor, starter Yang beat out Hsieh and Lin for his six innings of two-hit work, completely dominating a Lions lineup that also had the Tainan crowd on its side.

As for the Lions, starter Espinal was dealt the loss for allowing the first three Macoto runs in 4-2/3 innings of work, leaving the veteran pitcher, who joined the team late in August, two losses for the series.