Hitters dominated the pitchers in the game between the Sinon Bulls and the Uni-President Lions at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night as the two teams combined for 19 hits as the Bulls picked up a 7-6 victory.
Starter Yang Jien-fu did not have his best stuff as he served up a pair of home runs to the Lions, but managed nonetheless to pick up the win over 5-2/3 bumpy innings that saw him lose a three-run lead nearly twice, before reliever Shen Yu-jeh bailed him out with a strong finish for his eighth save of the year.
With Yang ejected after a questionable hit batsman two outs into the sixth, the lefty came out of the Sinon bullpen and immediately gave up a two-run blast to the Lions’ Chu Yuan-chin to cut a three-run lead down to a lone run at 7-6.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
That was as close as the Lions would get as Shen retired the side in order in a perfect seventh and worked out of a jam in the eighth by fanning two to strand a pair of Lions, before getting three outs in the ninth to preserve the victory for Yang.
“The two strikeouts by Shen in the eighth really took the momentum out of their comeback attempt,” Bulls skipper Liu Rong-hua said after the game.
The win by the Bulls gave them two out of three in the weekend series against the first-half of the season champions, tying them with the Lamigo Monkeys atop the standings in the second half with identical 2-1 records.
Monkeys 7, Elephants 2
The Lamigo Monkeys made it two wins in a row by topping the Brother Elephants 7-2 at the Pingtung County Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series in southern Taiwan by a 2-1 margin.
Lin Hong-yu led a Lamigo attack that took Elephants starter Yeh Ding-ren deep three times in the game with his first career Grand Slam in the top of the third to give his team a 5-1 lead at the point.
Also homering on the night for the Monkeys were Chung Cheng-yo and Tsai Jien-wei, with a solo blast and a two-run shot respectively, to attribute all of Lamigo’s runs by way of the long ball.
The home run by Lin nipped a 1 for 10 hitting slump for the sophomore slugger, who took over the cleanup spot in the Lamigo lineup after fellow hitters Lin Chih-sheng and Chen Chin-fong both went on the disabled list early last month.
“It definitely felt good to take one out of the park,” Lin said after the game.
His offensive numbers have dropped steadily since taking over the cleanup slot from his original No. 5 spot in the lineup.
Spotted a 7-1 lead through the fourth, starter Scot Drucker was well on his way to his first win of the year with eight solid innings of two-run ball on seven hits. The late addition to the Monkeys rotation struck out four and walked none in just his fourth start in Taiwan.
Tagged with the loss was Ding, who lasted only four innings on a subpar performance as he fell to a 3-8 mark for the season.
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