Cory Bailey pitched eight brilliant innings of shutout ball and Huang Shih-wei went a perfect 3-for-3 with the game’s only RBI to help the dmedia T-Rex blank the La New Bears 1-0 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Thursday night.
The US right-hander, who returned to Taiwan in a T-Rex uniform this year after spending nearly two seasons with the Bears in 2004-2005, showed no mercy against his former club by scattering four singles and fanning a season-high six over eight frames before closer Lee Ming-jin retired the side in order in a perfect ninth to keep the hard-earned shutout victory intact.
“There is really no margin for error in a close game like this one,” Bailey said after the game.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
He received just enough run support from the dmedia offense, which managed to produce a run on the eight hits it registered to eke out a big win.
A two-out blooper to left by Huang that was scored a single in the sixth with runners at the corners turned out to be the deciding point in the game as the runner from third strolled in for the game-winner.
Shabby lighting might have been the culprit, as La New leftfielder Chung Cheng-yo seemed to have lost the ball in the lights momentarily, preventing him from coming up with what would have been an inning-ending and perhaps game-saving catch.
Even though La New skipper Hong Yi-chung would be the first to defend his rookie outfielder, the play nonetheless cost the Bears the game.
With the win, Bailey improved to 3-0 for the season with a 1.41 ERA.
As for the hard-luck Bears, Bailey’s fellow countryman Andrew Loraine was charged with the loss despite tossing six strong innings of one-run ball on seven hits as he dropped to 2-4 for the year.
Bulls 5, Whales 1
Knocking in four of his team’s five runs, Cheng Dai-hong singlehandedly helped the Sinon Bulls defeat the Chinatrust Whales 5-1 at the Ilan County Baseball Stadium in Luodong on Thursday to avenge a bitter 4-5 loss to the marine creatures in extra innings the night before.
Cheng’s bases-clearing two-run triple jumpstarted the Bulls offense in a three-run first as they wasted little time getting to Whales starter Steve Watkins of the US.
Trailing 0-3, the Whales countered with a run of their own in the bottom of the same inning when Kuo Dai-yong led off the inning with a standup double and scored on Hsu Ren-jeh’s RBI-single on the ensuing play to make it 1-3.
That was all the scoring that the Whales could muster against the stingy pitching of Bulls starter Jose Espinal, who allowed only a run on six hits in as many innings before Tsai Ming-jin and Kuo Yong-chih combined for three innings of scoreless relief to preserve the win for Espinal.
Watkins suffered the tough loss for the Whales. He lasted six innings with five allowed runs on seven hits to fall below .500 with a record of 3-4.
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