Behind the strong hitting of Chen Chin-fong, the La New Bears claimed their third straight win over the Yomiuri Giants, a 4-3 victory at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Saturday. The Bears took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the four-game series.
The first Taiwanese player to play in the Major Leagues disappointed no one with a solo home run off Japanese starter Kisanuki Hiroshi to lead off the bottom of the second, followed by an RBI-double in the fourth on a two-for-four night on which he accounted for half of the Bears’ total runs.
“That was unbelievable power he [Chen] showed. I thought it [the homer] was going to be a routine fly to right,” Kisanuki said after the game through a translator.
The homer tarnished an otherwise solid outing by the former Rookie of the Year winner in Japan’s professional league.
Also starring for the Bears was speedy outfielder Tsai Jien-wei, whose two-run triple in the fifth brought his team back from a 2-3 deficit, a lead they would not relinquish with the sound pitching of starter Hsu Yu-wei and sure-handed closer Jermaine Van Buren, who got the final three outs in the ninth to record his third straight save in as many chances.
After Chen’s solo shot gave the Bears a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second, the momentum quickly shifted the Giants’ way as they rang up three runs in the top of the fourth, two singles, a double and a triple off Hsu.
Chen’s second hit of the game with a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the same inning would pull the Bears to within a run, before Tsai’s game-turning triple put the hosts ahead for good in the fifth.
Earning the dramatic win, despite trailing by a deuce early in the game, was Hsu, who overcame a shaky fourth and buckled down to finish strongly, with three allowed runs on eight hits in as many innings. He fanned seven and walked none.
Suffering the loss was Kisanuki, who gave up all four of the Bears runs on five hits through the fifth with nine strikeouts and a lone walk.
GIANTS 3, BEARS 0
The Giants finally got a victory over the Bears in the final game of the series at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night.
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