Orlando Roman pitched eight innings of shutout ball, Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min drove in three runs on a 2 for 4 night and the Brother Elephants held off a late-game rally by the Lamigo Monkeys to win 7-4 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the second straight win for the Elephants against the Monkeys, clinching the three-game weekend series regardless of the outcome of this afternoon’s contest at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City.
The win improved Roman’s season mark to a team-best 7-3, tying him with the Monkeys’ Ken Ray and the Uni-President Lions’ Dan Reichert for most the wins this season.
“It was a big win for him considering the fact he lost a tough one in his last start,” Elephants manager Chen Rei-chen said after the game.
His ace lost a 4-3 decision in his previous start against the Sinon Bulls last Saturday despite pitching three-run ball over seven innings.
For Peng, the team leader and arguably the most popular player in the league with his trademark smile and low-key style, it was the second straight game in which he managed to drive in at least two runs as he delivered another multi-hit outing, ridding him of the agony that had come after missing nearly two months of play because of injury.
It was Chia Chia’s RBI single that got things moving in the right direction for the Elephants in the bottom of the first as they quickly built a 3-0 lead through the third, before upping it to 5-0 and 7-0 in the fifth and eighth respectively.
Trailing by seven, the Monkeys finally got on the board in the ninth when Lin Hong-yu belted a triple off Elephants reliever Luo Guo-hua and scored on the ensuing play off a double by Tseng Hao-jui.
The Monkeys looked on tack to add more runs after consecutive base hits by Shih Chih-wei and Wang Hsiang-lan that chased Luo, before the Elephants sent in closer Ryan Cullen, who got the final two outs to preserve the win.
BULLS 13, LIONS 11
In a game that featured a late-game comeback, the Sinon Bulls erupted for 13 runs to stake a 13-5 lead, before holding off a six-run rally by the Uni-President Lions to win it 13-11 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium last night.
The Bulls took full advantage of a rare five-error performance by the Lions defense to score six unearned runs, making it virtually impossible for even the potent Lions attack to win.
After each team scored a run in the third, it was the Bulls who jumped ahead with a pair of runs in the fourth that made it 3-1.
Back-to-back homers by Kuo Dai-chi and Kao Chih-kang that highlighted a four-run fourth quickly brought the Lions ahead 5-3, before the Bulls answered with six-run fifth that made it 9-5.
They tacked on four more in the eighth, before a six-run rally by the Lions over the final two innings that nearly turned the tables.
Reliever Chang Keng-hao picked up the win, while Lions starter Ken Rayborn took the loss.
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