Chang Jien-ming’s two-run double capped a five-run seventh for the Sinon Bulls as they overcame a 0-2 deficit to edge past the La New Bears 5-4 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
The speedy outfielder — whose stellar defense often masks his outstanding .347 average at the plate — gave his team a 5-2 lead.
The Bulls needed every one of those five runs as the Bears rallied from three down to pull within a run in the bottom of the same inning.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Yu Jin-deh’s RBI groundout gave the home Bears a quick 1-0 lead in the second, before they doubled it three innings later on Chan Chih-yao’s sacrifice fly.
Bears starter Chang Chih-jia cruised through the sixth on a three-hit effort, but ran into a world of trouble in the seventh.
Chang served up a leadoff homer to Lin Yi-chuan and allowed two more runs on two singles and a walk before leaving with runners on second and third. His loss included five allowed runs and seven hits in six-and-two-third innings.
His counterpart, Shoda Itsuki, earned his 12th win of the season with some help from his offense.
ELEPHANTS 10, LIONS 6
The Brother Elephants continued their recent success by outslugging the Uni-President Lions in a 10-6 decision at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday night, extending their winning streak to five.
Matt Perisho and Ryan Cullen teamed up for another spectacular outing, with the former pitching his team out of trouble to end a Lions scoring threat in the eighth and the latter retiring the final three Lions batters in the ninth to preserve the win.
The American pitching tandem has successfully kept the opposing offense off the scoreboard for the Elephants in the late innings. Perisho earned his league-best 20th hold of the year, while Cullen converted on his ninth straight save opportunity.
On offense, Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s 3-for-5 hitting with an RBI led an attack that rang up 10 runs on 11 hits off five Lions hurlers.
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
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