Lin Keh-chien pitched six shutout innings of five-hit ball and Lin Yi-chuen batted three-for-four with a pair of RBIs to lift the Sinon Bulls past the La New Bears 6-1 at Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday evening.
The rookie tandem for the new-and-improved Bulls showed why they are the talk of the town, dominating the previously unbeaten Bears with a solid outing from Lin Keh-chien in his professional debut. Lin Yi-chuen connected for his ninth hit in just four games as the Bulls forced a tie with the Bears for the lead in the standings, both at 3-1 records.
The battle between the league’s top two squads saw the Bulls jump to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Wilton Veras drove in the first run with a crafty single to left off Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung before Lin Yi-chuen followed with a two-run triple.
Trailing 0-4 through the sixth, the Bears got a run back in the seventh when Tsang Chih-yao drew a leadoff walk off Bulls reliever Jiang Jien-ming and scored three batters later on Huang “Easy” Long-yi’s single to right.
That was as close as the Bears got as the Bulls answered with two more runs in the eighth to put the game away for good.
Lin Keh-chien was credited with the big “W” for his near-flawless performance while his counterpart Hsu suffered the tough loss, despite going seven strong innings with three earned runs (four allowed) in a quality start.
ELEPHANTS 7, LIONS 3
The Brother Elephants ended a two-game losing skid with a 7-3 win against the Uni-President Lions thanks to a great effort by starter Kobayashi Ryokan at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday night.
The Japanese native, who pitched the season opener against the Lions in a losing cause, managed to exact revenge by holding a potent Lions lineup to three runs on four hits over seven frames for his first win of the year.
The loss was the Lions’ fourth straight for the first time in nearly two years and ended starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen’s four-game winning streak against the Elephants.
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