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Bulls charge up standings

Sinon Bulls shortstop Chang Jia-hao, left, tags out Chinatrust Whales runner Yeh Chang-long at second on an attempted steal in Friday's game at Sinjhuang. The Bulls defeated the Whales 5-4 after 10 innings to rise to second place in the CPBL standings. PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL

Scoring three unanswered runs, the Sinon Bulls overcame a two-run deficit to beat the Chinatrust Whales 5-4 in extra innings in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League at Sinjhuang on Friday night to extend their non-losing streak to six games.

The defending champs have won three straight and five of their last seven (with a tie), to rally from the bottom of the CPBL standings back to the No. 2 spot over the past two weeks, trailing the league-leading La New Bears by 2-1/2 games.

With the game tied at 4-all in the bottom of the 10th, pinch-hitter Cheng Da-hong hit a sacrifice fly to center off Whales closer Dario Veras with one out and the bases loaded to score the game-winner for the Bulls.

The game began with the visiting Whales striking first in the opening inning on an RBI double by second baseman Wang Yi-min for a quick 1-0 lead before the home Bulls countered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning on cleanup man Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's two-run homer off Whales starter Du Chang-wei.

The 2-1 Bulls lead lasted until the fifth when Chinatrust regained a 4-2 advantage on the strength of third baseman Kao Jung-chiang's three-run blast off Bulls starter yang Jien-fu.

Down by a pair, the Bulls got one run back in the bottom of the fifth on outfielder Su Jien-rong's solo blast off Du and tied the game in the sixth with catcher Yeh Jung-chang's opposite-field single, good for another run.

Reliever Kuo Yong-chih retired the side in order with a perfect ninth and tenth for his first win of the year, while his counterpart Veras took the loss for surrendering the game-winner.

Elephants 2, Lions 3

Friday night's other contest had the President Lions topping the Brother Elephants 3-2 in Tainan, with Canadian lefty Eric Cyr pitched a brilliant four-hitter for a complete-game victory.

Elephants slugger Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a solo homer off Cyr.

The home cats fought back with a run in the fifth on designated hitter Chen Jia-wei's RBI single to make it 1-1 and added to took a 3-1 lead in the seventh with Yang Seng's solo shot leading off the inning and right-fielder Kuo Dai-chi following with a run-scoring ground out three batters later.

The Elephants made it interesting in the ninth with designated hitter Chen Guan-ren coming through on a two-out RBI single off Cyr to trail by a run, but that was as close as they came as the poised southpaw managed to get out of the jam by inducing a soft blooper to short for the final out of the game.

Offensively for the Lions, first baseman Kao Guo-ching's 3-for-3 night led an attack that racked up 11 hits against a Brother staff that had allowed over seven runs per game in their last four games.

Whales 1, Bulls 5

The Bulls dealt Whales staff ace Tseng Jau-hao his first loss of the season 5-1 in Thursday's game at Hsinchu that featured eight strong innings from Bulls starter Jorge Cortez of Panama.

After the Bulls went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth on outfielder Yu Hsien-ming's liner up the middle off Tseng, the Whales were able to answer with Yeh Chang-long's two-out, RBI single in the seventh to force a 1-1 tie.

Tseng Hua-wei's line-drive single off Whales set-up man Shen Yu-jeh gave the Bulls a 2-1 lead before they roared for three more runs in the eighth on four singles and a Whales error to put the game away.

The win by Cortez upped his record to 5-2 for the year, tying him with American righty Kenny Rayborn of the La New Bears for a share of the lead in total wins.
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