The President Lions clinched the first-half title with a convincing 5-0 shutout win over the Sinon Bulls at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Sunday, assuring themselves a spot in the postseason play that will include the second-half champs and the club with the third-best overall record.
Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen proved his worth as the highest-paid local player (NT$460,000 per month) in the league with seven innings of shutout ball on as many hits to lead his team to victory. The former number-one draft pick of the Lions (in 2003) has won 20 straight dating back to last season, making him the epitome consistency when it comes to rock-solid starts.
Yang Dong-yi’s RBI-single off Sinon starter Jose Espinal got the visiting cats on the board before Pan Wu-hsiung followed with a lining double to deep-center that scored two more runs to give their team a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the second.
After a quiet third, the Lions would added on a pair of runs in the fourth, courtesy of back-to-back errors by the Bulls defense this time, that made it 5-0.
And that was more than ample for Du Du as he cruised through the seventh before turning the game over to fellow reliever Ricky Stone who tossed two innings of scoreless relief to keep the shutout intact.
The Bulls’ best scoring chance in the game came during the bottom of the second when they loaded up the bases against Pan Wei-luen with two outs on three hits, but came away empty as the Lions ace calmly retired the Bulls’ Lin Tsong-nan to end the inning unharmed.
Suffering the tough loss in a four-hit outing was Espinal who allowed five runs (three earned) over six innings of work in his third defeat of the season as he fell to a 2-3 mark.
T-REX 3, BEARS 2
Lin “Wild Hog” Hong-yuan’s pinch-hit single to left scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth as the dmedia T-Rex overcame a 1-2 deficit to top the La New Bears 3-2 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Sunday to snap a three-game losing skid.
Wang Chuan-jia’s solo homer off Bears starter Hsu Yu-wei gave the T-Rex an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second before the Bears answered with Huang “Easy” Long-yi’s two-run blast off dmedia starter Chen Jien-fu in the top of the third to his team ahead 2-1.
The Bears lead would last all but an inning as the T-Rex battled back with the tying run from Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien’s second homer in as many days to tie the game at 2-all, which lasted until the eighth before Lin’s game-winning swing.
Picking up his first win of the season was Lee Ming-jin who pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth before fellow closer Nathan Bland sealed it with a hitless ninth.
The usually potent Bears offense was held to two meager runs on five hits in a game that was a defensive struggle for both squads.
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