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Shen pitches brilliantly as Whales sweep Elephants

Shen Yu-jeh pitched six-and-one-third innings of shutout ball and Carlos Villalobos drove in a pair of runs to pace the Chinatrust Whales past the Brother Elephants 4-0 win to give the Whales a two-game sweep in Sinjhuang on Friday evening.

The third-year lefty was brilliant in shutting down the Elephants bats as he two-hit the men in the familiar golden uniforms with a fastball that that was painting both corners of the plate and a nasty slider that ran up and in on the right-handed bats.

Doing the damage at the plate for the Whales was Villalobos, who went 3-for-4 and accounted half of their total offense with a pair of RBIs.

Also starring for the Whales was speedy outfielder and MVP of this year's All-Star Game Gee Jung-lin, who racked up three hits, stole a base and scored two runs on the night for his club.

The contest began with the Whales jumping out in front with two runs off Elephants starter Liao Yu-cheng in the top of the first on back-to-back RBI singles by Villalobos and Chen Jien-wei for a quick 2-0 lead.

Liao would promptly settle in and pitch the next six innings on two scattered hits without giving up another run. But that did not matter much as Shen was equally dominating with his own version of a two-hitter before relievers Du Chang-wei and Kevin Tolar combined for two-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit relief to keep the shutout intact.

Shen was credited with his second win of the year for his magnificent effort to beat his counterpart Liao, who fell victim to a lack of run support despite throwing seven solid innings of two-run ball on six hits to settle for a 3-4 mark.

Bulls 7, Cobras 2

Costly miscues by the Macoto Cobras defense that led to three unearned runs for the Sinon Bulls gave them an easy 7-2 victory in Hsinchu on Friday night as they swept the two-game set against the serpents to finish out the week on a high note.

Chang "Prince of the Forest" hit his 13th homer of the season, his third in as many games, to boost the once-sluggish Bulls offense as it rang up 14 hits to topple the first-half champs in convincing style.

It was the serpents who struck first in the game with three straight singles off Bulls starter Alfredo Gonzalez in the bottom of the first to claim a 1-0 lead.

That lead would last through the fifth as neither squad was able to produce another run until the top of the sixth, when Hsu Guo-long went deep against Cobras starter Pat Ahearne for a 2-1 Sinon lead.

Kao Wei's throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt by the Bulls in the top of the seventh not only put the runners on second and third with no outs instead of having a runner on second with one out, but also threw off Ahearne's rhythm as the US righty yielded three runs on a double and a single to the next two batters he faced before being pulled.

The Bulls wound up scoring five runs in the seventh en route to the 7-2 win.

Picking up the relatively easy win for the Bulls was Gonzalez, who allowed a run on seven hits in as many innings for his sixth win of the season.

Suffering the loss for the Cobras was Ahearne, who dropped his third straight start after starting off his Taiwan debut with a pair of wins late last month. He is now 2-3 in six starts for the Cobras with an ERA of 4.34.
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