Tilson Brito's league-leading 25th homer of the season sparked a 13-hit attack that propelled the President Lions past the Brother Elephants for a 9-4 triumph in Tainan and their sixth straight win on Thursday evening.
The premier long-ball hitter in the business has rewritten the record books in the home run-hitting category as of late with nine homers in his last eleven games, including a seven-game home run stretch that broke his old mark of six set on July 6th.
Brito has also crushed the fastest to reach the 20-homer and 25-homer plateau in a single season mark by accomplishing the former feat in only 54 games and the latter in 61 games, making him undoubtedly the most feared hitter among the opposing pitchers.
Thursday night's contest began with the home Lions getting on the board first when Liu Fu-hao drew a bases-loaded walk off Elephants starter Joey Dawley before Kao Chih-kang's grounder to third sent in another run for a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second.
After the Elephants managed to score a run in the top of the fourth on an RBI-double by Antonio Alvarez to make it 2-1, the Lions hit back immediately with three homers in a seven-run fourth to take a commanding 9-1 advantage.
Yang Seng got the Lions going with a two-run blast off Dawley after Chen Lien-hong drew a leadoff walk off to start the inning.
Then came a three-run shot by rookie slugger Pan Wu-hsiung that chased Dawley before the Lions capped off the seven-run surge with Brito's solo homer off Elephants reliever Yeh Ding-ren.
Trailing by eight with their most reliable starter knocked out of the game, the Elephants were able to score three runs on Chen Jian-ho's three-run blast off Lions starter Brian Reith in the sixth to make it 9-4. But that was as close as they got as the Lions sent Yen Cheng-hao, Shen Bo-chang and Tsao Jung-yang with a hitless inning of relief each to close out the deal in grand fashion.
Picking up the relatively easy victory was Reith, who remained undefeated for the season at 3-0 since making his Lions debut on July 1. He allowed four runs on nine hits over six solid innings while fanning six and walking a pair.
Taking the loss was Dawley, who fell to 6-3 for the year as he snapped a five-game winning streak.
Bears 5, Bulls 4
Lin Chih-sheng's RBI groundout with runners at the corners put the La New Bears ahead by two in the top of the eighth and Jiang Bo-ching struck out the final batter he faced to hold off a Sinon comeback in the Bears' 5-4 win over the Bulls in Hsinchu on Thursday night.
The seesaw battle between the two squads saw the Bulls jumping out in front 1-0 in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Cheng Jau-hao before the Bears roared back with Chen Chin-fong's team-high 15th homer of the year, a three-run shot to deep-right, to claim a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth.
Even though the Bulls would tie things up at 3-all in the fifth with run-scoring doubles by Lin Tsung-nan and Su Jien-rong, the visiting Bears would score another run in the seventh on Pan Chung-wei's RBI single before Lin Chih-sheng came through with what turned out to be the game-winning hit in the eighth.
The clutch swing by Lin Chih-sheng proved to be the difference in the game as the Bulls rallied for their fourth run of the contest in the bottom of the ninth off Bears closer Tsai Ying-fong on Lin Tsung-nan's one-run single with two outs.
The Bulls were actually in position to win the game at that point with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first which prompted the Bears to send in Jiang to save the day.
And the second-year reliever was equal to the task. He struck out the final Sinon hitter to wrap up the win for fellow starter Hsu Yu-wei.
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