Shaky outings by middle inning relievers cost the Brother Elephants a win against the Chinatrust Whales in Tianmu on Sunday as they failed to hold off the leviathans in a tough 5-4 loss.
It was the second straight game that the Elephants lost by two or fewer runs and the fourth in their last five losses.
All the defeats were caused by a faltering bullpen, adding to the burdens of rookie manager Wang Guan-hui.
Reliever Liu Jung-nan entered the game with a 3-1 lead and two on in the top of the fifth after fellow starter Liao Yong-jeh was nailed by a comebacker that ricocheted off the second-year righty and landed softly in the infield for a base hit.
Liu Jung-nan would surrender a two-run double to the Whales' Chen Jien-wei to cough up the lead and eventually fall behind by two runs in the sixth when he allowed a leadoff single to the Whales' Wang Yi-min and a RBI single to Hsu Ren-jeh two batters later.
Trailing 5-3, the Elephants managed to plate one more run in the seventh off Whales starter Lorenzo Barcelo on Liu Gheng-hsin's sacrifice-fly to make it 5-4.
But that was as close as they got as the Whales' Nee Fu-deh and Miguel Saladin combined for two-and-one-third innings of scoreless relief to preserve the first win of the season for Barcelo, who allowed all four of the Elephants runs in game on seven hits in just over six innings of work.
Suffering the loss for the Elephants was Liu Jung-nan, who was hit hard by the Whale in allowing two runs in as many innings for his second loss of the year.
Cobras 10, Bears 7
Ten early runs by the Macoto Cobras offense proved too much for the La New Bears to overcome as the defending champs dropped Game 2 of the two-game set in Kaohsiung on Sunday to split the series with the Cobras.
Kao Wei's bases-loaded walk off Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung squeezed home the first run of the game before Yang Rei-chih and Kuo Ming-ren followed with a single and a double to drive in two runs each in a five-run second to spot Cobras starter Lin Jing-min a surprising 5-0 lead.
The Cobras would double their offensive output an inning later with five more runs in the third, this time on four singles and four devastating walks off two different Bears hurlers for a commanding 10-0 lead.
However, the home Bears would roar back for seven unanswered runs to make a game of it in the end.
Cobras starter Lin was credited with the win for his five innings of solid work as he gave up three runs on six hits, including a two-run blast to Chen Chin-fong for his league-leading sixth homer of the season.
Taking the loss was Hsu, who lasted only one out into the second inning in his shortest start in four years.
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