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Bears power past Elephants in series

Lin Chih-sheng of the Bears is congratulated by his teammates after hitting a home run against the Elephants in Kaohsiung, Friday. The Bears won 11-2. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Consecutive home runs by Lin Chih-sheng(林智勝) helped power the La New Bears past the Brother Elephants in an 11-2 blowout at Kaohsiung Friday as Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League leaders won two in a row to avenge Wednesday's series-opening loss.

The third-year shortstop for the Bears has gone deep three times in the past two games to lead an explosive attack that rang up 17 runs on 33 hits against an exhausted Brother staff over the same span after the Elephants handed them their first shutout loss of the season Wednesday in a 2-0 decision.

Pan Chung-wei's RBI double, following Chen Chin-fong's run-scoring ground out to short put the Bears ahead 2-0 in the opening frame before they tagged on four more runs by the fourth inning to claim a comfortable 6-0 lead.

Even though the Elephants would get a run back in the fourth and fifth innings on first baseman Tsai Fong-an's one-run single and rookie second baseman Liu Keng-shuen's solo blast, respectively, that was all the offense they managed to produce against Bears lefty ace Wu Si-yo in the 11-2 win.

Seven Bears players had a multi-hit night, with leadoff man Shih Chih-wei and outfielder Huang Long-yi collecting three hits apiece to give Wu (two runs on eight hits in 6-1/3 innings) plenty of run support for his fourth win of the season.

Taking the loss was Elephants righty Liu Jung-nan on an off night as he dropped to 2-5 for the season for allowing six runs on nine hits in four innings of play.

Bears 6, Elephants 2

Kenny Rayborn (5-1) became the league's first five-win man Thursday after a 6-2 win over the Elephants at Kaohsiung with six innings of two-run ball (only one earned run) on seven hits and four strikeouts.

The American veteran received a great deal of help from his offense that spotted him six runs on 14 hits and reliever Lee Fong-hua who tossed three innings of one-hit relief.

Lin Chih-sheng and Chen Chin-fong both homered for the visiting Bears in the game off Elephants reliever Wu Bao-shien, while Canadian slugger Todd Betts added another RBI to his league-leading 28 on a 3-for-5 night.

Cobras 7, Whales 2

The Macoto Cobras had little trouble against the Chinatrust Whales at Sinjhuang Friday with a 7-2 win to even their record at 13-13-2.

Starter Hsu Chu-jien won for the first time in over 40 days after missing nearly three weeks of action with an elbow injury in early April. Chu turned in six innings of solid work, allowing a pair of runs on five hits while fanning six.

Leading the attack for the serpents was slugger Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien, whose team-high seventh homer of the season, a solo shot to deep-center off Whales starter Edwin Minaya of the Dominican Republic in the top of the third, made it 4-0 in favor of the Cobras.

Chinatrust was able to cut the four-run deficit in the bottom of the fifth on the strength of shortstop Cheng Chang-ming's two-run double down the third base line off Hsu, but Hsu finished out the inning without further damage and fellow reliever Lee Ming-jin mopped up with three innings of scoreless relief to preserve the 7-2 win.

Rudy Pemberton of the Cobras had his home-run streak snapped at three games, but still ended the night 2-for-4, including a monstrous double in the top of the first inning that knocked in two runs for the visitors.

Cobras 4, Whales 5

Felix Villegas failed to protect a 4-3 lead for the Cobras by allowing two ninth-inning runs at Sinjhuang Thursday for his first blown save of the season.

The Puerto Rican fast-ball pitcher issued two leadoff walks to start off the ninth before yielding a single to load up the bases with no outs in a 4-3 game.

And after Chinatrust's Huang Kwei-yu hit a sacrifice fly up the middle that sent home the tying run, it was Hsieh's off-target throw to the plate that allowed the Whales to score the game-winner.
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