Chen Yan-feng’s clutch single with a runner on second base broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth inning as the La New Bears held on to defeat the Brother Elephants 1-0 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night.
The win not only avenged a bitter loss against the top-ranked Elephants the night before in which the Bears squandered a 5-1 lead to lose the game 6-5, but also spoiled the Elephants’ bid to claim the second-half title as their magic number to clinch dropped to one, with the Lions losing to the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on the same night.
“It was big win for us, especially after the way they took the game from us last night,” Bears coach Tsai Rong-tsung said after the game.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
His team had lost two straight against the Elephants prior to last night’s victory.
Starter Huang Chin-chih tossed five brilliant innings of two-hit ball to cool off the red-hot Elephants hitters in a winning effort, while his successor Wang Fong-hsing followed with an even more impressive act, holding the men in their familiar yellow uniforms hitless for three-and-two-third innings, before Hsu Ming-jeh got the final out in the ninth to keep the shutout intact.
The Elephants managed to place runners in scoring position only twice all game as they loaded the bases against Huang in a two-hit second and against Wang in the ninth, but failed to come through on either occasion. Huang induced a bouncer to first with two outs to escape unharmed, while Wang fanned the last batter he faced for the second out in the ninth, before Hsu closed it out on a game-ending fly to center to strand the runner on second.
Picking up the tough loss was Elephants starter Orlando Roman, who went the distance for a league-best sixth time, with the lone allowed run on five hits and four walks. He is now 12-7 for the season.
Bulls 5, Lions 3
The Sinon Bulls overcame an early deficit to rally to a 5-3 win over the Uni-President Lions at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium last night and maintain a three-game lead over the Elephants for the best overall record in the CPBL.
The first-half champions had two-run homers from Wang Hsin-min and Chang Tai-shan off Lions starter Hsu Yu-wei in the fourth and fifth respectively, turning a 1-2 deficit into a 5-2 lead, They then held off a late-game rally by the visiting Cats to grab the win.
Henry Mateo showed off his blazing speed by leading off the game with a triple and scoring two batters later on Kao Guo-ching’s RBI single to help the Lions take a quick 2-0 lead in the opening frame.
However, the Bulls answered with their first run of the game in the second, courtesy of Wu Tsong-jung’s run-scoring single off Hsu.
The Lions’ lead proved short-lived as the Bulls erupted for four runs via the homers that made a winner out of starter Lin Ying-jeh, who left with a 5-2 lead after the fifth inning and watched his bullpen shake off a couple of comeback rallies by the Lions to preserve his eighth win of the season.
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