The La New Bears wrapped up the second-half title for the regular season with a narrow 5-4 win over the Sinon Bulls at home in Kaohsiung on Friday night.
Tied with the idle Uni-President Lions, who finished their regular season on Wednesday night with a big come-from-behind win over the Bulls, the Bears needed a win in their season finale to win the second half outright.
And that was exactly what they did behind the strong pitching of staff ace Mike Johnson, who picked up his 20th win of the year with eight solid innings of work.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Canadian native, who finishes the regular season with an astounding 20-2 mark, becomes the first 20-game winner in league history since Mark Kiefer won 20 games for the Sinon Bulls in 2000.
It was not an easy win by any means, since the home Bears actually trailed for a good part of the game before a three-run eighth helped them turn a 2-3 deficit into a 5-3 lead.
Chiang Chih-tsong’s bases-loaded single with one out in the bottom of the eighth jumpstarted an otherwise relatively flat Bears offense as they reclaimed a 4-3 lead before Chen Fong-min added an insurance run with a sacrifice-fly on the ensuing play that made it 5-3.
The Bulls made one final push in the top of the ninth with Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan homering off Bears closer Jermaine Van Buren, bringing them to within a run.
But that was as close as the Bulls got as Van Buren quickly buckled down and retired the side in order after issuing a walk to preserve the win.
ELEPHANTS 4, WHALES 1
The Brother Elephants took advantage of a wild Chu Wei-ming by scoring a tie-breaking run in the bottom of the sixth as they went on to beat the Chinatrust Whales 4-1 in Sinjhuang on Friday to close out their regular season campaign on a high note.
Kobayashi Ryokan was at his best on the mound for the Elephants with six effective innings of one-run ball to win his 10th of the year.
Doing the damage at the plate for the Elephants were Chen guan-ren and Wang Jin-yong, whose respective triple and single knocked in a run each in the eighth to seal victory for their team.
Next up for the Elephants will be the Bears in the Playoff Series with the best-of-five first-round action scheduled to start in Kaohsiung on Friday night.
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