CPBLTorrential rain in southern Taiwan caused the contest between the Macoto Cobras and the La New Bears to be postponed in a very wet week for the Chinese Professional Baseball League, with the only game on Saturday being the Brother Elephants' 14-5 blowout win over the Sinon Bulls at Sinjhuang.
Chen "Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan's solo homer off Bulls starter Alfredo Gonzalez ignited a three-run sixth that broke a 3-1 game wide open as the Elephants piled on 11 of their 15 runs for the game during the last four innings.
After the Bulls drew first blood in the bottom of the opening frame on cleanup man Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's two-out single to give his team a quick 1-0 lead, the Elephants responded in the top of the fourth when rookie designated hitter Chen Guan-ren got a hold of an offering from Gonzalez and drove it over the right-field wall for a two-run homer in what ended up being a three-run fourth inning.
Held scoreless for six innings after the one-run first, the Bulls finally strung together four singles and a walk on top of an Elephants error to score four runs in the eighth.
But it was too little too late for the defending champs as they trailed the Elephants 9-5.
Three different Elephants hitters had three-hit games, led by Chen Guan-ren's 3-for-5 night with four RBIs.
The rookie out of the Taipei Physical Education College was a single short of batting for the cycle, with his fourth homer of the season, a stand-up double and a triple to rack up nine total bases for the night.
His also added to his team-best batting average to .364, good enough for third in the league.
American righty Joey Dawley picked up his fourth win of the year with seven strong innings of one-run ball on five hits and five strikeouts.
Taking the loss was veteran Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic, who missed a chance to become the CPBL's first eight-win man by allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits in 5-1/3 innings of work to lose a game for the first time in over a month. He is now 7-4 with an ERA of 2.69.
American League
Tadahito Iguchi singled home Pablo Ozuna in the 11th inning on Saturday and the Chicago White Sox rallied for two runs against closer Bob Wickman in a 4-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
After Chicago's Mark Buehrle and Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia locked up in a pitchers' duel, the Indians took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 11th when Victor Martinez hit his second homer of the game.
In came Wickman (1-1), who was 8-for-8 in save chances this season and had the longest current streak in the majors with 24 straight saves dating to last season.
A.J. Pierzynski singled leading off the bottom half, moved up on Scott Podsednik's sacrifice and scored on Rob Mackowiak's tying RBI single.
Mackowiak went to second on the throw and then tried to score on Ozuna's single. But right fielder Casey Blake made a strong throw as Martinez blocked the plate with his left leg and Mackowiak was out.
Iguchi delivered a single past diving first baseman Ben Broussard and Ozuna, who had moved to second on the play at the plate, scored easily as the White Sox raced from the dugout to celebrate.
Athletics 5, Yankees 2
At New York, Frank Thomas hit a two-run homer, Kirk Saarloos combined with three relievers on a six-hitter and surging Oakland beat New York.
Thomas hit his 16th homer with two outs in the first after Mark Kotsay opened the inning with double off Mike Mussina (8-2). The Athletics added two more in the fifth on a two-run single by rookie Mike Rouse and went on to their eighth victory in 10 games.
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