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Chen's double caps Elephants' rally

Chen Rei-cheng's bases-clearing three-run double capped a five-run ninth for the Brother Elephants as they rallied from a 0-2 deficit to top the Sinon Bulls 5-2 in Taichung on Friday evening.

Trailing by a deuce, the Elephants took advantage of a pair of poor throws to the plate on grounders to the pitcher and short with the bases loaded that would have recorded outs to end the game. Instead, the Elephants scored on both plays to tie it before Chen's game-winning hit.

"I knew he [Bulls reliever Kurita Yusuke] had to throw it over the plate since the bases were loaded, so I was looking for a fastball the entire time," Chen said after the game, referring to the pitch that he drove to deep-right to clear the bases.

Solid pitching efforts by Liao Yu-cheng of the Elephants and Iba Tomokazu of Japan for the Bulls kept it a 1-0 game in favor of the Sinon Bulls through to the seventh.

The lone run by the Bulls came on an RBI groundout by Hsu Guo-long in the bottom of the fourth after the first two hitters had reached on consecutive singles off Liao to put men on the corners.

The Bulls thought they had the game won when Elephants reliever Wang Jing-li threw a wild pitch that allowed the runner to score from third for the Bulls' second run to make it 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth.

That was when things took a nasty turn south for the Bulls as the Elephants eventually loaded the bases on two singles and a hit batsman by ace closer Kuo Yong-chih before the errors ultimately cost them the game.

Wang ended up winning the game for the Elephants by recording an out on the one batter he faced in the eighth, while Todd Moser picked up his team-best eighth save of the year with a perfect ninth.

As for the hapless Bulls, what seemed to be a sure 2-0 shutout win turned out to be a 5-2 loss, wasting a brilliant outing by Iba, who left the game two outs into the eighth with a two-run lead and was denied the chance for his ninth win of the year in a no-decision. Kuo was charged with a blown save and the loss for allowing the winning run to reach in the ninth.

Whales 3, Lions 1

A spectacular diving catch by a fully-extended Kao Jung-chiang in the bottom of the ninth save the day for the Chinatrust Whales as they held on to beat the President Lions 3-1 in Tainan on Friday to split the two-game series with the league-leaders.

The Whales held off two strong rallies by the home Lions in the eighth and ninth without surrendering to record the win, thanks to an inning-ending strikeout by Kevin Tolar with the runner on second in the eighth and a double play initiated by third baseman Carlos Villalobos in the ninth before Kao's acrobatic catch ended the game.

RBI singles by Villalobos and Kuo Dai-yong off Lions starter Chang Chih-chiang gave the Whales a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first before the Lions answered with a run of their own in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Yang Seng to drag it back to 2-1.

The Whales would tack on an insurance run in the seventh on Kao's run-scoring single.

Starter Shen Yu-jeh was credited with the win for tossing six innings of one-run ball on a pair of hits to extend his winning streak to six straight.

Tagged with the loss for the Lions was Chang, who fell victim to a lack of run support in what was his third setback of the season.
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