Lin Chih-ping’s timely single following a triple by Tsai Jien-wei scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh as the Lamigo Monkeys held on to defeat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night for their sixth straight win.
The victory kept the Monkeys atop the league standings with a 6-1 record and dropped the first-half champs from Tainan to a 2-5 mark, dead last in the early part of the second half of the season.
Monkeys starter Steve Hammond tossed eight strong innings of two-run ball on a half-dozen hits in his second straight quality start for the win to improve to 5-6 for the year, while closer Hsu Ming-jeh hurled a perfect ninth to pick up his league-leading 20th save of the season.
Photo: Chan Chao-yang, Taipei Times
In an all-American showdown between Hammond and fellow countryman Dan Reichert, it was the Monkeys who struck first in the bottom of the first with a leadoff walk off Reichert and a run three batters later on Lin Hong-yu’s RBI groundout for a quick 1-0 advantage.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Lions returned the favor and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second when Chen Jung-hui hit a sacrifice-fly to left with the bases loaded to score their first run, before Chu Yuan-chin followed with a run-scoring single off Hammond.
With three runs scored in less than two frames it seemed like it would be a high-scoring affair, but both starters clamped down in a hurry and allowed only one more run over the next four innings — a solo shot by Tseng Hao-jui in the fourth that tied the game at 2-2 until Lin’s game-winner in the seventh.
Reichert was charged with the loss despite going the distance with three allowed runs on eight hits to settle with an 8-5 record. It was the third straight loss for the American righty, even though he had allowed three or fewer earned runs and gone at least six innings on each occasion.
ELEPHANTS 7, BULLS 5
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s two-run blast in the top of the seventh broke a 5-5 tie to lift the Brother Elephants past the Sinon Bulls in a 7-5 final at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
In a contest that featured four lead changes, it was the Bulls who drew first blood with a pair of runs on a first-inning homer by Cheng Da-hong off Elephant starter Orlando Roman.
However, the men in the golden uniforms rallied by plating a run in the second, before skidding ahead 3-2 with two runs in the third, courtesy of an RBI triple by Chang Chih-hao and Chou Si-chi’s groundout to short that drove in Chang on the ensuing play.
The Elephants added to their lead by two in the fifth on RBI doubles by Chia Chia and Chou to make it 5-2, only to see the lead squandered away in the bottom of the same inning when Cheng pounded out a two-run single with the bases loaded, before Chang Jien-ming knocked in the tying run on a fielder’s choice to second that made it 5-5.
Roman was credited with his eighth win of the year, while the loss went to Sinon reliever Chen Huan-yang.
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