Favorites won their respective games in the Chinese Professional Baseball League on Saturday with the top-ranked La New Bears downing the Chinatrust Whales 3-0 in Tienmu and the Uni-President Lions cruising past the dmedia T-Rex 7-3 in Sinjhuang to remain a game behind the Bears in the standings.
The Bears set a new club record for longest win-streak with their ninth straight, thanks to an outstanding performance by Chang Chih-jia who tossed seven scoreless innings of five-hit ball before the La New bullpen took over with a perfect eighth and ninth to keep the shutout intact.
Doing the damage on offense for the Bears were Gary Burnham and Pan Chung-wei who drove in a run with a pair of hits apiece to account for two of their team’s three runs.
The Whales had two scoring opportunities with runners reaching second during the first and sixth, but failed to come up with the clutch hits either time.
LIONS 7, T-REX 3
The Uni-President Lions took advantage of a six-run fourth to overcome an early deficit in a 7-3 win over the dmedia T-Rex.
Trailing 0-1 after three innings of play against dmedia starter Cory Bailey, the Lions erupted for six runs on the strength of eight singles off Bailey to lead 6-1.
That was enough for Aaron Fultz who regrouped after giving up the early dmedia run by allowing only two more runs through the eighth.
All but two of the Lions’ starting nine drove in a run on the night with Yang Song-hsuen’s 3-for-5 effort heading the pack.
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