Nee Fu-deh had a career night against the President Lions in Sinjhuang on Sunday when he three-hit the league leaders in a 1-0 complete-game shutout to hand the Lions their third loss in a row.
The Chinatrust Whales rookie lefty needed only 104 pitches to become the first Taiwanese player to record a complete-game shutout this season and just the third overall, behind the Lions' Pete Munro and Gary Rath for the La New Bears. Nee was spectacular on the night with a fastball that consistently hit its spots and a breaking ball that dropped low and inside against a mostly right-handed Lions lineup.
Pitching just as effectively was Lions starter Munro, who also went the distance for the seventh time this season in a one-hit gem.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Had it not been for a two-base error by second baseman Yang Seng, which led to the lone unearned run by the Whales in the game on an RBI single by Hsu Ren-jeh, there would have been no telling which team would have come away with the win as the game went into extra innings.
"I have seen some strange things happen on the baseball field, but this one tops them all," Lions manager Hsieh Chang-hen said after the game, referring to Munro's one-hit complete-game loss, which also made its way to the record books as the first of its kind.
A win for Munro would have tied the US righty with fellow teammate Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen for the league's lead for wins at 15.
Instead, Munro had to settle for his sixth defeat of the year, while watching his earned run average drop to a miniscule 1.64.
Elephants 9, Bulls 4
The Brother Elephants avenged a tough one-run loss on Saturday with a convincing 9-4 road victory over the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Sunday evening, thanks to a 3-for-5 effort with four-RBI by emerging infielder Chen Jiang-heh.
It was the second straight three-hit game that the Elephants rookie had in his fourth multi-hit outing in a row.
Wasting no time against Bulls starter Alfredo Gonzalez, the Elephants went to work with two runs in the second on a one-run single by Chen and an RBI groundout by Chen Chih-hong, before a five-run third cut the Dominican hurler's night short.
Leading 7-0, the Elephants would tack on two more in the fourth to make it 9-0 before the Bulls even got their first hit of the game off Elephants starter Nicholas Ungs in the bottom of the fourth.
The Bulls hitters finally came through with a run off Ungs in the seventh to break up his shutout bid on Hsu Guo-long's two-out double, which scored a runner all the way from first to make it 9-1.
They then added three more in the eighth against Elephants reliever Wu Jung-yi.
But it was too late as they Elephants held on for the 9-4 win.
Earning his second win in as many starts since making his Taiwan debut on Sept. 24 was Ungs, who breezed through the first six innings unharmed on two hits before surrendering a run on a total of five hits.
Pocketing the loss for the home Bulls was Gonzalez, who did not look particularly sharp with a fastball topping out at around 140kph.
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