Nelson Figueroa pitched eight solid innings of two-run ball and Chen Lien-hong went 4-for-5 with a pair of RBIs to lead the President Lions past the Macoto Cobras in a convincing 9-4 win in Game 1 of the Playoff Series in Sinjhuang on Friday evening.
The former major-leaguer out of Brandeis University, who won all four of his starts for the Lions since joining them in the middle of last month, scattered six hits while fanning eight and walking a pair over eight innings to give the Lions lineup ample opportunity to produce offensively.
And the Lions hitters did just that by tying the league mark for most hits in a Playoff Series game with 13 off five different Cobras hurlers to make this one look easy.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Led by Chen's four-hit effort, five different Lions batters enjoyed multi-hit nights, while Tilson Brito, this year's home-run champ with a record-setting 32 during the regular season, went deep with a two-run blast off Cobras starter Chang Hsien-chih in the top of the fifth to give him 33 for the year.
The Cobras struck first in the bottom of the second with Deng Shih-yang belting an offering from Figueroa over the right-field wall for a two-run shot that put the Cobras ahead 2-0.
The road cats would respond immediately by tying the game up with Kao Guo-ching's two-run single before taking a two-run lead of their own on Liu Fu-hao's RBI single and a run-producing error by the Cobras defense to make it 4-2.
Brito's two-run shot quickly doubled the Lions lead to 6-2 in the fifth before Chen knocked in two more in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
Trailing the game 9-2, the Cobras managed to cut into the Lions lead by two in the bottom of the ninth, with Chen Shih-hao launching his first career homer off Lions reliever Tsai Shih-chin, who started the inning in relief of Figueroa. But it was too little too late for the first-half champs as the Lions sent Tseng Yi-cheng to the mound to strike out the final Cobras hitter and wrap up the win.
"It was a big win for us given that we had lost two games to let a first-round bye past us," Lions manager Lu Wen-sheng said after the game, referring to the Lions' two tough losses against the La New Bears in the final two games of regular season to hand the second-half title and a first-round bye in the postseason to the Bears.
Recording his fifth straight victory for the Lions was Figueroa, who avenged a rough outing against these same Cobras in his Taiwan debut, in which he allowed six runs (only three earned) over five frames in a slugfest won by the Lions.
Taking the tough loss on behalf of the Cobras was Chang, who was simply overwhelmed by a Lions attack that made him pay dearly for every mistake he made.
All four of the Lions runs in the third came after Chang had gotten two outs on a double play that his defense turned before he walked two to load up the bases.
He lasted only five innings, giving up six runs on as many hits, including Brito's two-run shot in the fifth that not only set the Cobras back by four at that point, but also destroyed their confidence for good.
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