Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen tinkered with perfection on Thursday night by tossing a walk-less no-hitter in a 7-0 win over the Chinatrust Whales at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium.
The lone base runner for the Whales came by ways of a bobbled catch by first baseman Kao Guo-ching on a routine putout that was called safe by the first base umpire in the top of the first. Other than that, it was smooth sailing for the Lions ace as he retired all 27 of the Whales batters he faced in order to become the first pitcher in Taiwan to pocket a no-hitter this century (the last no-hitter thrown was by former Lions great Tsao Jung-yang on May 13, 1999).
“It’s one of those things you wish for, but never know if it will ever come,” an overjoyed Pan said after the game.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
He became the sixth man in league history to register a no-hitter, closer than any of his five predecessors to a perfect game, as all of them had allowed at least one walk in their amazing feats.
Doing the damage at the plate for the home Lions was a feisty heart of the order consisting of Pan Wu-hsiung, Tilson Brito and Kao, whose combined 5-for-11 hitting with four RBIs accounted for the bulk of their team’s runs.
Suffering the tough loss on a night he received no help from the hitters was Whales starter Huang Hong-ren, who allowed six runs on eight hits over five innings for his fourth setback of the year.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Whales 11, Elephants 9
The Chinatrust Whales took less than a day to vent their frustration over the shutout loss to the Lions as they erupted for eleven runs on Friday evening to defeat the Brother Elephants at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang.
Lefty Nee Fu-deh was rock-solid, tossing two-run ball on a half-dozen hits for the Whales over seven sharp frames as he left the game with a commanding 11-2 lead.
Even though the Elephants would make a game of it by ringing up seven unanswered runs over the final two innings, and actually had the tying run at the plate on the final out of the game, it was too little too late for them as Whales closer Lorenzo Barcelo calmly recorded the final three outs to preserve the win.
Bulls 9, T-Rex 6
Hsieh Jia-shien homered for the second time in as many games for dmedia T-Rex, but it was not nearly enough to deliver the win for his club as they dropped a 9-6 decision to the Sinon Bulls in Hsinchu on Friday.
“Getting runs on the board has never been a problem for us. It’s giving up just as many, if not more, that is killing us,” T-Rex manager Lin Kuen-wei said after the game.
His club are third in the league for the most runs scored with 325, but dead last in the league for most runs allowed with 362 (from 65 games).
Benefiting from the poor pitching by the T-Rex was Sinon starter Yang Jien-fu, who collected his fourth win of the season with three allowed runs on five hits over six innings of work.
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