Three runs in the opening inning set the tone early on for the Sinon Bulls, who held off a late-game rally by the La New Bears to win 4-3 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night, ending a six-game Bulls slide.
Starter Lin Keh-chien was rock solid through the sixth with one allowed run on six hits to earn his eighth win of the year. The Bulls rookie sensation improved to 8-4 for the season with a 3.85 ERA to lead his team. After cruising through the fifth unharmed, he finally gave up a run on three consecutive singles in the sixth before inducing an inning-ending double play to end the La New scoring threat.
Offensively for Sinon, the night belonged to outfielder Chang Jien-ming, who ripped four hits off two different Bears pitchers to pick up his third game-MVP honor of the year.
Also starring for the Bulls was Dominican slugger Wilton Veras, who connected for three of the 13 hits by the hosts and drove in a pair of runs.
Trailing 4-1 after the eighth, the Bears led off the top of the ninth with a single by Chen Fong-min and rallied for a pair of runs on Chen Chin-fong’s two-out double off Franklin Nunez to pull within a run of the Bears.
That was as close as they would get as the next batter grounded to first on a one-hopper to end the game.
Failure to come up with timely hits cost the Bears the game. Although they pounded out a dozen hits, they did not have much on the board to show for it.
ELEPHANTS 15, LIONS 8
Scoring early and often, the Brother Elephants erupted for 15 runs on a season-high 24 hits to roll past the Uni-President Lions 15-8 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Tuesday evening, starting the week with a big win.
The Elephants teed off against the Lions pitching by sending a dozen batters to the plate in a seven-run first and led it 9-5 through the third before blowing the game wide open with a five-run sixth on a night they could do no wrong.
All but one player from the starting lineup had multi-hit games on the night, led by Chen Jiang-heh’s perfect 5-for-5 hitting with three RBIs. The five hits by Chen Jiang-heh tied a league mark for most hits in a single game.
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