Close plays dominated Sunday's action with the La New Bears edging past the Chinatrust Whales in a 2-1 thriller at Taitung and the Macoto Cobras shutting out the President Lions in a 2-0 final at Tainan.
Gary Rath improved to 7-2 for the season with the win over the Whales, tossing seven solid innings of one-run ball while Lin Chih-sheng came up with a clutch single that scored the go-ahead run in the eighth for the Bears.
The classic pitchers' duel had the visiting Bears drawing first blood in the opening frame thanks to Shih Chih-wei's lining single up the middle off Whales starter Tseng Jau-hao that put the Bears 1-0 up.
That was the only run that Tseng gave up over the seven innings he worked before Lin's game-winning single off Whales reliever Nee Fu-deh in the eighth.
Offensively for the Whales, Gee Jung-lin led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk off Rath and advanced to second on a sacrifice-bunt before rounding third another out later on Kuo Dai-yong's two-out single which tied the game at 1-1.
Pocketing the loss for the Whales was Nee, who dropped to 3-6 for the season primarily from his mid-inning relief role. The defeat by the Whales extended their losing streak to six straight, sending the club to last place in the latest standings.
Cobras 2, Lions 0
The Macoto Cobras avenged an embarrassing 20-3 trouncing by the President Lions on Saturday night with a 2-0 blanking of the Lions on Sunday in Tainan to maintain a narrow 1-1/2 game lead over the second-place Bears atop the latest standings.
Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien's two-run blast off Lions starter Wayne Franklin in the top of the sixth was decisive as the lefty slugger got hold of an offering from Franklin and deposited it over the right-center wall for his 12th round-tripper of the year.
The two runs by Hsieh seemed more than ample for the Cobras because starter Jeremy Hill showed no signs of weakness by pitching a five-hit shutout two outs into the seventh before fellow bullpen mates Huang Chin-chih and Travis Minix teamed up for two and a third innings of scoreless relief to keep the shutout intact.
It was Hill's third quality start since joining the Cobras late last month to help stabilize a rotation that had been plagued by injuries.
The shutout put an abrupt halt to the Lions' recent offensive surge that netted them nearly ten runs per game over their ten previous contests prior to Sunday.
After five scoreless innings of play that saw both offenses being kept at bay by the sound pitching of Franklin and Hill, the Cobras finally cashed in on a belt-high pitch from Franklin to Hsieh, which the former Taiwan Major League (TML) home-run champ promptly crushed to put his side 2-0 ahead.
Neither offense was able to score again with Huang and Minix doing their jobs well and the Lions' Tsao Jung-yang, Pan Jung-rong and Shen Bo-chang playing their part with three combined innings of hitless relief.
Picking up the win for the Cobras was Hill, his second in three starts, while the loss went to Franklin, who fell to 0-1 for the season after just four appearances with only one start.
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