Scoring early and often, the Sinon Bulls trounced the Brother Elephants 12-4 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night, improving their league-best mark to 8-4-1.
After Lin Ying-jeh allowed a pair of first-inning runs to the visiting Elephants, the home Bulls answered right away with Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien’s three-run blast off Brother starter Kobayashi Ryokan, capping a four-run spurt in the bottom of the same inning to lead it 4-2.
Chang Jien-ming’s sacrifice-fly with a runner on third quickly made it 5-2 in favor of the Bulls in the second before back-to-back homers by Cheng Jau-han and Lin Yi-chuen in the third and a two-run shot by Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan in the fourth put their team ahead 10-2 through the fourth.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Elephants would score twice more in the fifth, but that was as close as they got as the Bulls added the finishing touch with two more runs in the seventh to take the game long before the final out was recorded.
Lin Ying-jeh picked up the win despite allowing four runs on seven hits over five innings. It was the first CPBL win for the former Macoto Cobras ace in nearly four years after he spent three seasons in Japan with the Rakuten Eagles prior to signing with the Bulls this year.
As for the Elephants, Kobayashi was tagged with the loss for serving up 10 runs on nine hits in three-and-a-third innings for his second defeat of the year.
LIONS 7, BEARS 4
The La New Bears proved no match for the Uni-President Lions on Friday as they lost 7-4 to the Cats in Tainan to end a three-game winning streak.
Even though Bears slugger Lin Chih-sheng was able to extend his home run streak to four games with a solo shot in the top of the first, that was the lone highlight for the visitors as the Lions clearly outplayed them.
Starter Hsu Wen-hsiung also continued his struggle against the Lions as he surrendered seven runs on eight hits in five-and-two-third frames to lose his seventh straight against the defending champs. He is now 3-13 in 40 career games (14 starts) against the Lions.
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