Scoring at least one run in seven of the nine innings to tie the league mark, the Sinon Bulls caged the Macoto Cobras in an 8-3 win in Sinjhuang on Thursday evening to snap a four-game losing streak.
Sinon starter Yang Jien-fu also put a halt to his eight-game losing skid in the process, allowing three runs on five hits over eight solid innings to earn his third win of the year.
"Wow, it's hard to believe it's been that long," the veteran Sinon right-hander, whose season has been hampered by a series of minor injuries, said after the game about his eight-game slump.
His sliders finally gained their old form by breaking hard and late to keep the Cobras hitters at bay.
Offensively for the Bulls, Cheng Da-hong and Wu Bo-hong's three-hit efforts with an RBI each led an attack that scored early and often to back up Yang with plenty of run support.
The contest began with the Bulls drawing first blood on a double-steal that worked to perfection before the Cobras responded with a pair of runs of their own on Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien's two-run double to claim a 2-1 advantage.
It was all Bulls from that point on as they quickly evened things up at 2-all in the top of the second on Wu's RBI single before striking for more in a two-run third and one-run innings from the fourth to the sixth to claim a comfortable 7-2 cushion.
The serpents would score a run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 7-3, but that was as close as they would get while the Bulls tacked on one more run in the ninth to conclude all the scoring.
Picking up the loss was Cobras starter Jeremy Hill, who continued to struggle by dropping three in a row after winning five straight at one point during the season to claim a regular spot on the Cobras rotation.
The US right-hander gave up six runs on 10 hits in five innings for a losing cause as his ERA climbed past 4.00 for the first time this year at 4.38.
Whales 5, Elephants 1
Carlos Villalobos' two-run double capped a three-run sixth that turned a 0-1 deficit into a 3-1 lead as the Chinatrust Whales went on to top the Brother Elephants 5-1 in Douliou on Thursday night.
The Colombian slugger has hit safely in all but one of the 15 games he has played since joining the Whales late last month with a batting average of .344 and 13 RBIs.
Brother starter Joey Dawley cruised through the first four innings flawlessly by retiring all 12 of the Whales hitters he faced in order before issuing a walk to Chen Jien-wei one out into the fifth to put the first Whales hitter on base.
But that was the extent to which the US hurler could control the killer Whales as they finally got to him in the top of the sixth by connecting for two singles and a double to plate three runs.
With the three runs that his hitters produced, Whales starter Nee Fu-deh seemed even more unhittable as the lefty shook off an unearned run that he gave up in the fourth and mowed through the Elephants lineup through the seventh to earn his fifth win of the season.
Dawley was tagged with the tough loss despite turning in another quality start for the Elephants.
He is now 6-4 with 104 strikeouts to lead the league.
RSS