Lin Yi-chuen got his name in the record books twice as the Sinon Bulls rolled past the Uni-President Lions 12-2 at the Yunlin County Baseball Stadium in Douliou on Thursday evening, when regular-season play resumed after a four-day delay in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.
The win not only ended a dreadful five-game slide for the Bulls, but also brought them out of the cellar in the latest standings as they traded places with the Cats, who fell to an 8-11-1 (tie) record for the second half.
Showing off his big bat in the game was Sinon slugger Lin, who connected for a single, a double and a home run on a 3-for-4 night with five RBIs to lead an attack that racked up 14 hits against four different Lions pitchers. The Bulls’ rookie sensation was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in his league-leading 34th multi-hit game of the season.
“It’s hard to explain it, but I’m seeing the ball extremely well as of late,” Lin said after the game.
His three hits and five RBIs on the night gave him a total of 119 hits and 77 RBIs for the year thus far, breaking the league records of 117 hits and 72 RBIs in a season by a rookie.
Bulls great Chang Tai-shan’s RBI record had stood since 1996, while the La New Bears’ Shih Chih-wei set the rookie hits record in 2004.
It was Lin’s RBI double off Lions starter Chris Gissell that gave the Bulls a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first before they made it 4-0 in the second on the strength of a double and three singles.
Down by four, the Lions halved the deficit with a pair of runs in the fourth off Sinon starter Shoda Itsuki on Chen Lien-hong’s RBI groundout and a run-scoring single by Cheng Nai-wen.
That was as close as the Lions got as the Bulls erupted for five runs in the fifth, highlighted by Lin’s three-run blast to straight-away center, blowing the game wide open.
Picking up the win was Shoda, who added to his league-best 10-win total with another impressive victory thanks to double-digit run support. He allowed two runs (only one earned) on six hits in as many innings while fanning eight and walking two.
Suffering the loss was Gissell, who lasted just four innings with nine allowed runs on 10 hits to fall to a 4-5 record for the year.
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