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CPBL: Whales sink Elephants to stay unbeaten

Chiang Chih-Tsung of the La New Bears forces out Pan Wu-hsiung of the President Lions at second base before he throws the ball to first base to complete a double play in the bottom of the 3rd inning during their CPBL game at the Cheng Ching Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung County on Sunday. PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

The Chinatrust Whales continued their unprecedented success by easily defeating the Brother Elephants 5-2 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Sunday to remain unbeaten this season.

The once-troubled club, marred by a series of point-shaving incidents which led to the dismissal of several key players last season, has quietly turned into a championship-contending team under the leadership of Lin Min-cheng and manger Hsieh Chang-hen.

Nee Fu-deh's timely resurgence as a legitimate No. 2 starter and Shen Yu-jeh becoming a formidable force out of the bullpen to back up ace Steve Watkins of the US are also reasons why the Whales have had their best-ever start.

And a quick start was exactly what the Whales had in mind on Sunday as they piled on five quick runs over the first three innings to overwhelm the Elephants.

After the Elephants drew first blood in the top of the first on Chen Guan-ren's RBI double to the opposite field, the Whales responded immediately in the bottom of the same inning, with red-hot slugger Kang Tseh-wei's run-scoring single equalizing the score.

Following Lin Chin-chang's solo home run off Elephants starter Yeh Yong-jeh that made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second, the Whales managed to blow the game wide open with three more runs in the third on four base hits off the Elephants pitching.

The 5-1 advantage was plenty for rookie starter Kao Jing-min, who surrendered a pair of runs on five hits over six strong innings to record his first career victory.

Suffering the loss for the Elephants was Yeh, who gave up all five of the Whales runs on eight hits in less than three innings of play to lose his first start of the season.

Bears 9, Lions 3

The La New Bears took advantage of a late-game collapse by the President Lions defense, scoring six runs (five unearned) over the final two innings to claim a 9-3 win over the defending champions in Kaohsiung on Sunday.

What had been a hard-fought 3-2 Bears lead through the seventh suddenly turned into a blowout with the Bears sending eight men to the plate against two different Lions hurlers for four runs in the eighth, before striking for two more in the ninth to seal the win.

Earning his first win of the seasonwas starter Mike Johnson of Canada who allowed a pair of runs on seven hits while fanning five and walking three over six frames.
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