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CPBL: T-Rex pull off upset of the week

Wang Chuan-jia of the dmedia T-Rex hits a double in Friday's match against the President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium. The T-Rex defeated the Lions 8-3. PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

The dmedia T-Rex pulled off the upset of the week on Friday night with a big 8-3 win over the top-ranked President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium to nip a two-game losing skid in the bud.

Jiang Bo-ching held a potent Lions lineup to just a run on four hits over five solid innings in his first career start before Yen Chih-chung and Lee Ming-jin combined for four innings of two-run relief to keep the hard-earned victory intact.

Offensively for the visiting T-Rex, Wang Chuan-jia’s clutch double off Lions staff ace Louis Pote drove in three runs to cap a fourth-run fourth that broke a 1-1 deadlock en route to the impressive win.

Trailing 1-5 after five innings, the home Lions cut the deficit to as few as two runs with solo homers from Kao Guo-ching in the sixth and Pan Wu-hsiung in the seventh off Yen, but that was as close as they got as the T-Rex tacked on three insurance runs in the top of the ninth to ice the win.

Picking up the loss was Pote, who allowed five runs on eight hits in seven innings in his first defeat of the season.

The previously undefeated US hurler, whose bid for his eighth straight win stumbled to a halt, did not get the usual run support of nine runs per game with which his offense had provided him in his eighth previous starts.

Bears 8, Whales 5

Chen Chin-fong drove in three runs on a 3-for-4 night, including a two-run homer, to lead the La New Bears past the Chinatrust Whales in a 8-5 home victory at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Friday.

The former Major Leaguer, who carries the distinction of being Taiwan’s first native son to make it to the big leagues, hit his team-leading sixth blast off Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh in the bottom of the first to give his team a 3-1 advantage.

And the Bears never looked back as they went on to win their fourth in the last six to keep their first-half title hopes alive, trailing the league leaders by five games with nine remaining in the first half.

Taking control of the mound for the home Bears was starter Andrew Loraine, who allowed three runs (two earned) over six frames in his fourth straight quality start to even his season mark at 4-4.

As for the Whales, failure to keep the game close in the late-innings ultimately cost them the game as the bullpen wasted a golden opportunity to get back in the game after the offense had scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to fall within a run of the Bears by giving the two runs right back in the bottom of the eighth in a losing cause.
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