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CPBL: Elephants baffle Bears to extend winning streak

Two members of the Chinatrust Whales cheerleading squad perform at the Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night. PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Chen Guan-ren’s two-run triple capped a four-run rally in the bottom of the eighth as the Brother Elephants overcame a late-game deficit to top the league-leading La New Bears 5-2 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday evening and extend their winning streak to four straight.

Trailing 1-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Chen Rei-chang quickly tied things up at 2-all with a pinch-hit solo home run off Bears starter Chang Chih-jia before Chen gua-ren’s rare triple put the Elephants ahead for good.

Thanks to the late-game rally, Elephants starter Kobayashi Ryokan was awarded the win for going the distance in his third complete-game outing of the season. He allowed a pair of runs on seven hits, including a solo shot to the Bears’ Huang “EZ” Long-yi in the top of the third.

Picking up his third loss of the year was Bears reliever Tsai Ying-fong, who brought fuel to the fire by allowing back-to-back singles in relief of Chang before serving up two-run triple by Chen Guan-ren in a sub-par performance.

Kuo Ming-jen of the dmedia T-Rex dives into a base in the match against the Chinatrust Whales at the Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night. The T-Rex shut out the Whales 1-0. PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

T-REX 1, WHALES 0

Cory Bailey tossed a one-hit gem over nine strong innings in his best outing of the year thus far to lead the dmedia T-Rex past the Chinatrust Whales in a 1-0 shutout at the Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.

The win snapped a four-game losing skid for the US hurler, who started off his second stint in Taiwan by winning his first five starts before hitting a mid-season slump.

It also ended a three-game losing streak for an inconsistent dmedia squad, whose owner, Shih Chien-hsin, had made claims of game-fixing in the league on Thursday, setting off a wave of rage and heated debates around the league.

As for the game in Chiayi, it was Jose Leon’s solo shot over the middle off Whales lefty Nee Fu-deh in the top of the fourth that broke a scoreless tie which ended up being the game-winner for dmedia.

The loss by Nee was his eighth of the year, even though his reasonable ERA of 3.79 is among the top 12 in the league as he fell to a miserable 4-8 mark.

ELEPHANTS 8, BULLS 7, 12 INNINGS

Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th made the difference in the game as the Elephants scored the final four runs to top the Sinon Bulls 8-7 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Thursday night.

The seesaw battle that featured four lead-changes saw the Elephants jumped ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the third before the Bulls answered with two runs of their own to knot things up at 2-2.

After the Elephants reclaimed a 4-2 advantage in the bottom of the fourth, it would be the Bulls who struck for five runs over the seventh and eighth to make it 7-4 before an all-out rally by the Elephants in the bottom of the eighth that would send the game into extra-innings, setting the stage for the Golden Warrior’s game-winning blast.

“To win it in such dramatic fashion is just unbelievable,” an overjoyed Chen Chih-yuan said after the game.
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