Troubles continued for the slumping La New Bears as they dropped a 6-4 decision to the Uni-President Lions at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night for their sixth continuous loss.
The Bears found themselves down early with starter Aaron Rakers surrendering a run in the opening frame when a runner scored from third on a wild pitch by the American right-hander.
Even though the Bears offense evened the score with an RBI single from Shih Chih-wei in the top of the third, Lions batter Pan Wu-hsiung nailed a home run in the bottom of same inning to retake the lead.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The Lions then scored four more runs, highlighted by Cheng Nai-wen’s two-run blast off Rakers in the fourth, setting up a comfortable 6-1 lead heading into the ninth.
The Bears made things interesting in the final frame, with a solo shot by Pan Chung-wei and a two-run blast by Tseng Hao-jui to pull within a deuce at 6-4.
However, Lions closer Lin Yueh-ping retired the next three batters to preserve the seventh victory for starter Chu Wei-ming.
Rakers failed in his second bid to win his 10th of the season, allowing five runs on eight hits over four-and-a-third innings for a 9-3 record.
ELEPHANTS 2, BULLS 1
Chou Si-chi’s tie-breaking double in the bottom of the sixth helped the Brother Elephants edge the Sinon Bulls 2-1 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday for a winning start to their three-game weekend.
The victory helped the league-leading Elephants bounce back from an ugly loss in their previous outing and gave them a two-and-a-half game lead over the second-place Bulls.
The duel between Bulls starter Pedro Liriano and the Elephants’ Mike Smith was a 1-1 deadlock through the fifth, with the Elephants striking first on Chen Guan-ren’s one-run double. The Bulls returned the favor an inning later when Cheng Hong-da led off the fifth with a single and scored two batters later on Yeh Jung-chang’s single.
After Chou’s clutch double gave the Elephants a 2-1 lead in the sixth, Smith pitched a hitless seventh despite allowing a runner on with a walk.
He pitched one out into the eighth before the Elephants bullpen took over and preserved the win with one-and-two-third innings of relief.
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