Brian Reith tossed eight innings of six-hit ball before Tsao Jung-yang followed with a scoreless ninth on Saturday to keep the shutout intact in the President Lions' 3-0 blanking of the Brother Elephants at Tianmu.
The American newcomer who made his Taiwan debut just two weeks ago has registered quality starts in all three of his appearances thus far, allowing only one run in 22-1/3 innings. His continued success could be the difference between another second-place finish in the second half of play and an outright title that will qualify the Lions for postseason plays.
The classic pitchers' duel between Reith and Brother starter Liu Jung-nan had both hurlers escaping a couple of scoring threats by the opposing offense with some timely outs over the first five innings in a scoreless affair.
Then things took a turn south for Liu as the Lions capitalized on a fielding error by the Elephants third baseman and scored two runs in the top of the sixth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Yang Seng and Kao Chih-kang to jump 2-0 ahead.
Yang Seng led off the ninth with his third hit of the game and scored on Yang Song-hsuen's infield single to conclude the scoring for the visitors, making a winner out of Reith.
The Lions' victory sent them to the top of the league standings for the first time in more than three months as they led the idle second-place Macoto Cobras by a half-game.
Picking up the loss was for the Elephants despite allowing just one earned run (three overall) on eleven hits over 8-1/3 innings was Liu who pitched his best game of the season by far in a losing cause.
Bulls 3, Bears 0
The Sinon Bulls denied the La New Bears any offensive output in Chiayi on Saturday evening to deal the defending champs their third defeat in four games.
Iba Tomokazu of Japan took a one-hit shutout deep into the fifth before being injured by a comebacker from the Bears' Lin Jin-ping that brought his night to an abrupt end.
In came fellow countryman Kurita Yusuke, who started the sixth and mowed through the heart of the Bears order with two hitless innings of perfect relief before handing the game over to setup man Alfredo Gonzalez and closer Kuo Yong-chih to preserve the shutout win for Iba.
Only three La New hitters managed to reach second base the entire game, and none made it back to the plate as the hitters went a combined 0-for-5 hitting with runners in scoring position.
Offensively for the Bulls, luck was definitely on their side, as three miscues by the Bears defense led to two unearned runs.
Cheng Hong-da's one-run single off Bears starter Huang Jung-chung with two outs broke the ice in the fourth and a wild throw on a pickoff attempt by Bears reliever Randy Leek allowed the runner to score all the way from second for the Bulls second run of the game.
Tsai Jien-wei's drop on a routine fly with a runner on first and two outs scored the third and final run for the Bulls in the eighth.
Improving to an 8-4 mark for the year with the win was Iba who saw his ERA dip to a miniscule 2.04 with five scoreless innings of work.
He outdueled Huang who only allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits in 5-1/3 innings in a very winnable game had the normal run support by the Bears offense been there.
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