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`Du Du' sets record with victory No. 12

Chen Chin-feng of the La New Bears steals second base under the tag of Chinatrust Whales second baseman Wang Yi-min in the third inning of Wednesday's game in Kaohsiung. PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen set a new league mark for consecutive victories by winning his 12th straight in the President Lions' 11-4 triumph over the Sinon Bulls on Wednesday evening.

The home crowd in Tainan was treated to five scoreless innings of work on five scattered singles by the Lions staff ace before his bullpen mates finished off the game with minimal damage to preserve the historic win.

Homers by Chen Lien-hong and Yang Seng over the first three innings quickly helped the Lions build a 6-0 lead and that made Du Du even tougher to hit as the Bulls hitters often found themselves behind in the count.

The Lions capitalized on a pair of first-inning walks by Bulls starter Kurita Yusuke when Chen drove a pitch from the Japanese right-hander over the leftfield wall for a three-run shot and a 3-0 lead.

After a scoreless second, the Lions doubled their lead in the third with Chen's RBI single to left before Yang launched a two-run blast off Kurita in a 6-0 game.

A single by Yang followed by Kao Chih-kang's RBI triple made it 8-0 in favor of the home cats before the Bulls finally got on the board with back-to-back solo homers by Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and Chen Chih-wei off Lions reliever Kao Long-wei in the sixth to avoid a shutout.

Chen Lien-hong of the President Lions hits in Wednesday's game against the Sinon Bulls in Tainan. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

They would tack on a run each in the eighth and ninth while the Lions struck for three more runs in the eighth to conclude the scoring.

Du Du improved to 12-2 for the year with the win, allowing no runs on five hits.

He left after just five innings of work in the interest of resting his throwing shoulder, which continued to bother him.

Picking up the loss for the visiting Bulls was Kurita, who gave up eight runs on nine hits, including a pair of homers for his third loss of the season.

Bears 4, Whales 0

Hsu Yu-wei pitched seven strong innings of shutout ball and Lin Chih-sheng knocked in all four runs for the La New Bears as they blanked the Chinatrust Whales 4-0 to sweep the two-game series in Kaohsiung on Wednesday night.

It was the third straight quality start that Hsu has tossed for the defending champs, as he improved to 6-2 for the year, filling in nicely for a departed Wu Si-yo, who joined the Chiba Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball during the offseason.

The outstanding effort by Hsu not only earned him the game-MVP honor, but also solidified his position as a legitimate No. 2 starter in the Bears rotation.

Lin Chih-sheng's three-run homer off Whales starter Lorenzo Barcelo in the opening frame was more than ample for Hsu as he mesmerized the opposing lineup with a four-hit gem to avenge Tuesday night's embarrassing 14-2 blowout loss.

Lin connected for his fourth RBI on the night in the seventh, this time on a double off Barcelo for the icing on the cake as the home Bears beached the marine creatures.

Veteran slugger Chen Chin-fong also had a huge night offensively as the former major leaguer batted 3-for-3 to up his team-leading average to .355.

Offensively for the Whales, none of the six hits they managed off the Bears pitchers led to any runs as they suffered the fourth loss in five games to drop below .500.

Barcelo was charged with his sixth loss of the year for allowing four runs (three earned) on 10 hits in seven innings of play, despite it having been his second straight quality start for the Whales.

Three of his six losses for the year have come in games in which the Dominican hurler has allowed three runs or less in at least six innings of start.
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