Aaron Rakers tossed six shutout innings of four-hit ball and Chen Chin-fong hit his league-leading 16th homer of the year as the La New Bears blanked the Brother Elephants 9-0 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday night.
The win not only nipped a four-game slide for the Bears, but also gave them a 5-0 record in all five of the games they have played in Sinjhuang so far this season, making it a friendly home away from their home field in Kaohsiung.
The Bears wasted little time getting to Brother starter Mike Smith with Chen’s solo blast to left-center in the top of the second for a quick 1-0 advantage before tacking on two more in the fourth on consecutive run-scoring base hits by Shih Chih-wei and Pan Chung-wei that made it 3-0.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
A three-run fifth quickly doubled the Bears’ lead to 6-0 before they blew it wide open with three more in the sixth that virtually sealed the win long before the final out.
Rakers was credited with his seventh win of the season as he became the league’s first seven-game winner.
Taking the tough loss was fellow countryman Smith, who allowed eight runs (six earned) on nine hits with five strikeouts and a pair of walks as he remained winless at 0-2 in the three starts he had since joining the Elephants late last month.
LIONS 10, ELEPHANTS 3
Capitalizing on seven costly errors by the Elephants defense, the Uni-President Lions tallied up 10 runs on only eight hits to seize victory in Sinjhuang on Thursday evening and avenge Wednesday night’s loss to the Elephants.
The Elephants tied a club record for most errors committed in a single inning with three in the top of the first that allowed two runs to score.
They found themselves falling further behind over the next two innings by allowing two more runs in the second and third.
Wang Tzu-song’s three-run shot off Elephants starter Kobayashi Ryokan in the fifth made it 9-1, and that was more than enough for the Lions pitching as they gave up two meaningless runs the rest of the way en route to claim the big win.
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
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