Eight outstanding innings by starter Lin "Little Chick" En-yu propelled the Macoto Cobras past the previously unbeaten Sinon Bulls in a 9-1 road win at Hsinchu on Friday night to end a recent three-game losing skid for the Cobras.
It was the second win for the Cobras staff ace in six days and his tenth of the season as he became the league's third 10-win man, joining Kenny Rayborn and Wu Si-yo of the La New Bears. Other than an error by the third-baseman which scored an unearned for the Bulls in the bottom of the third against him, Lin was nearly flawless in the eight innings he pitched, allowing just four singles while striking out seven and walking one.
Offensively for the serpents, six of the 11 hits they rang up off the Sinon staff went for extra bases, including five doubles and a two-run homer by designated hitter Wang Chuan-jia off reliever Chen yang-kai in the top of the eighth.
The Cobras took a 4-0 lead with a three-run third, thanks to a pair of costly errors by the Bulls defense, and never looked back.
Suffering the loss for the Bulls was starter Alfredo Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic, who surrendered five runs (only one earned) on six hits over seven innings of work, falling victim to a porous defense that committed a season high of six errors in the game.
Elephants 10, Whales 2
Nine unanswered runs in the final two innings of the game helped the Brother Elephants turn a 2-1 deficit into a 10-2 thrashing of the Chinatrust Whales in Sinjhuang on Friday night.
The Elephants batted around the order in the top of the eighth for four runs on a two-run, bases-loaded single by shortstop Chen Rei-cheng and back-to-back run-scoring singles by Chen Huai-shan and third-baseman Wang Jin-yong.
Then came the five-run ninth that saw the men in the golden uniform batted around the order again, this time with Lee "Rambo Junior" Chih-jeh leading off the inning with a solo blast to deep-left before Chen and Wang delivered consecutive doubles for three more runs to conclude the scoring.
The Elephants actually scored first in the game with switch-hitter Chen Huai-shan's sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth, but found themselves trailing 2-1 by the end of the seventh as the Whales fought back with a tying run in the sixth on a wild pitch by Brother reliever Yeh Yong-jeh and went ahead in the seventh on Mike Lockwood's RBI double.
Poor hitting with men in scoring position was the culprit in the loss for the Whales as they went a lousy 1-for-11 with men in scoring position, including three strikeouts, to strand a total of 13 base runners in the game.
Yeh was credited with the win for his 1-2/3 innings of relief, despite blowing a save opportunity by allowing the Whales' second run of the game in the bottom of the seventh. He beat the Whales' Tseng Jau-hao, who lost his third straight start to drop to a 6-5 mark.
Bulls 1, Cobras 0
The Bulls won their fourth straight game in the second half of the season with a 1-0 blanking of the Cobras in Taichung on Thursday, getting a great performance from starter Clint Weibl and set-up man Kuo Yong-chih for eight combined innings of shutout ball on five scattered singles.
The lone run of the game came on Sinon catcher Yeh Jung-chang's RBI groundout to short in the bottom of the second after the first two hitters had reached via singles off Cobras starter Chen Jia-hong.
Weibl improved to 6-4 for the year with the win for his five innings of two-hit ball, while Chen was dealt his second defeat of the season.
Whales 4, Elephants 3
Three-plus innings of scoreless relief by the Whales bullpen held off a fierce Elephants rally to preserve the 4-3 win in Sinjhuang on Thursday evening.
The Whales hitters went to work right away against Brother starter Joey Dawley with three opening-inning runs on American slugger Brian Becker's bases-loaded, three-run double.
They would add to their lead by a run in the second when shortstop Cheng Chang-ming's chopper to short made it past the infield for an RBI single.
The run ended up being the game-winner as the Elephants struck for three runs in the sixth off Whales starter Du Chang-wei before his bullpen came in to put out the fire with several clutch pitches late in the game.
The Whales were outhit by the Elephants by a 10-5 margin, but still managed to come away with the win.
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