Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s walk-off home run broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 10th as the Brother Elephants topped the Chinatrust Whales 4-2 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday night to nip a two-game losing skid.
The rain-delayed contest that had to be stopped three times before it was finally completed well past 11pm on Friday saw the Elephants blow a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth when Whales slugger Kuo Dai-yong lined a double to deep-right to score the tying run from second before Chia Chia saved the day for the Elephants with his eighth round-tripper of the year to put an end to the marathon match.
Chang Jia-yuan’s infield single quickly put the Whales ahead 1-0 in the top of the third, only to see the Elephants fight back with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning to claim a 2-1 lead.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
The slim lead would last all the way to the ninth with neither club able to produce again offensively until the Whales squeezed a run off Elephants closer Mai Jia-rei late in the game to send it into extra innings.
Matthew Perisho was credited with his first win of the year for bailing out Mai in the ninth with a perfectly executed pick-off play to get the runner on second and retiring the side in order in the top of the 10th.
Picking up the tough loss despite a late-game surge by the offense was Whales reliever Liu Yu-chan, who served up Chia Chia’s homer after entering the game in the ninth to lose his third game of the year.
It was an important win for the Elephants, not only in terms of ending their two-game slide, but also because it kept them in the second-half title hunt as they trailed the top-ranked La New Bears and Uni-President Lions by a lone game in the standings with eight games remaining in the regular season.
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