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CPBL: President Lions hand Chinatrust Whales

Chinatrust Whales pitcher Shen Yu-chieh hits his head with the ball after the President Lions score three points in the fifth inning of their Chinese Professional Baseball League game at the Sinjhuang Stadium in Taipei County on Wednesday. PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

Chen Lien-hong's grand slam in the top of the seventh broke an otherwise close game wide open as the President Lions netted the Chinatrust Whales by an 8-3 final at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Wednesday to deal the Whales their first loss of the season.

It was the second grand slam that he veteran slugger had belted in 10 days for the defending champs, boosting his league-leading home run and RBI total 4 and 12 respectively.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the seventh, Chen simply unloaded an offering from Whales lefty Nee Fu-deh over the left-center wall to put the game out of reach.

Keeping the potent Whales lineup at bay with four combined innings of shutout relief were relievers Kao Jien-san, Yen Chuen-hao and Tseng Yi-cheng who held Chinatrust to two hits over the final four innings to preserve the win for American starter Brian Adams who allowed three runs on five hits in as many innings in his second start of the season to earn his first win in Taiwan.

The contest began with the offense getting the better of the opposing pitchers with the Lions drawing first blood in the top of the first on Kao Guo-ching's one-run single up the middle off Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh for a quick 1-0 lead before the home Whales countered with Abraham Nunez run-scoring single to right to tie it 1-all.

Carlos Villalobos' opposite-field single with two outs and a man on second would put the Whales ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the third before the Lions scored three straight in the fifth on four consecutive base this, all with two outs to claim a 4-2 advantage.

Chinatrust would score its third run of the game in the fifth on Nunez's RBI-double to fall within one. But that was as close as the Whales got with the Lions bullpen holding its ground over the final four frames to make good on the win.

Suffering the loss on behalf of the Whales on the night was starter Shen who pitched two outs into the fifth before being pulled. He allowed four of the Lions' runs (three earned) on a half-dozen hits while fanning one and walking one.

T-Rex 8, Elephants 2

Scoring early and often, the dmedia T-Rex teed off against the Brother Elephants pitching in an 8-2 win at Hsinchu Wednesday evening to split the two-game series against the men in the familiar golden uniform.

With the win, the T-Rex not only snapped a four-game losing skid, but also restored their confidence with local ace Chang Hsien-chih tossing six-and-one-third strong innings of two-run ball and long-ball threat Lin "Wild Hog" Hong-yuan going deep with his first home run of the season off Elephants reliever Kobayashi Ryokan of Japan.

Three straight singles and an error by the Elephants defense turned an early 0-1 deficit into a 4-1 lead for dmedia in the top of the second.

And that was all Chang needed to record his first win of the year before the T-Rex bullpen took over during the seventh to silence the Elephants bats the rest of the way.

What was a bid to sweep the series against T-Rex fell short by a game as American lefty Steve Kent was dealt his first loss for allowing six runs on eight hits in five innings of work after an impressive outing in his Taiwan debut last week.
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