The Sinon Bulls topped the Brother Elephants 4-1 as Itsuki Shoda struck out seven with six solid innings of one-run ball and Lin Yi-chuan batted a perfect four-for-four with a home run and three RBIs at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in Taipei County last night.
The win not only avenged Friday night’s 7-0 shutout to the Elephants, it also widened their lead over the second-placed La New Bears to three games. The Bears, meanwhile, fell to the Uni-President Lions in a 6-3 decision over at the Taipei Municipal Tianmu Baseball Stadium.
“I don’t know what happened, but I was seeing the ball extremely well tonight,” Lin said in a postgame interview.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
His three RBIs on the night propelled him past the Elephants’ Chou Si-chi for the league lead in RBIs at 14 so far this season.
Defensively, the second-year infielder, who made a big splash in his rookie season winning the coveted league MVP honor, Lin also saved at least two runs with an important mid-air snatch in the top of the eighth that took away a sure two-run double from the Elephants’ Chu Wei-ming, runs that would have tied the game at 3-3.
The Bulls broke a scoreless tie in the third inning with Lin’s two-run shot off Elephants starter Yeh Ding-ren to lead 2-0 and made it 3-0 two innings later when Lin struck again with a two-out single that scored the runner from third.
After the Elephants scored a run in the top of the sixth that chased game winner Shoda, the able Sinon bullpen took over and kept the Elephants off the board with a scoreless seventh and eighth, before closer Shingo Takatsu retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his fourth save of the year.
Taking the loss was Yeh, who pitched well enough for a win with three allowed runs on five hits in as many innings, but fell victim to an inefficient Elephants offense that managed only one run on the eight hits it rang up off the Bulls’ pitching.
Today, the Elephants take on the Bulls in Sinjhuang, while the Lions face the Bears in Taoyuan. Both games start at 2:05pm.
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