The red-hot Brother Elephants continued their recent surge on the diamond by downing the Uni-President Lions 4-1 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night to win their fifth straight game.
Tyler Lumsden pitched his best game of the season so far by going the distance for the Elephants in a three-hit gem. The American lefty took a one-hit shutout one out into the eighth, before surrendering a single and a double for the Lions’ lone run of the contest in an impeccable performance to improve to an 8-9 mark.
The win also nipped a three-game slide for Lumsden as the Elephants tightened their grasp on the second-place slot in the standings with a little more than three weeks remaining to play in the second half of the season.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“We were able to change speed on them [Lions hitters] and go inside against them, that’s why we were so effective tonight,” Elephants catcher Chen Chih-hong said after the game.
Chen also went 2 for 3 with an RBI to lead the men in the golden uniforms. The Elephants needed little time getting to Lions starter Chen Yi-chen with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second on the strength of three singles.
The Elephants tacked on another run three innings later when Chou Si-chi came through with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly that scored the runner from third in the fifth inning to spot Lumsden a 3-0 lead en route to a solid victory.
Taking the loss was Chen Yi-chen, who pitched well to win with four allowed runs on six hits over 7-1/3 innings of work, but fell victim to an anemic Lion’s offense that managed only one run as they dropped their fifth in a row.
MONKEYS 6, BULLS 4
Homers by Kuo Yen-wen and Tseng Hao-jui paved the way for the Lamigo Monkeys as they outpowered the Sinon Bulls to win at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to even their weekend series at one win apiece.
The Primates teed off against Sinons starter Luo Cheng-long with four quick runs on three hits and a pair of walks over the first two frames to chase the rookie sensation in his shortest outing of the season.
That set the tone for them the rest of the way as they held off a vicious comeback by the home Bulls to keep the win intact for starter Bryan Corey.
Trailing by five midway through the fourth, the Bulls managed to pull within a run of the Monkeys with four quick runs by the sixth inning in a 5-4 game.
However, that was as close as they got to tasting victory.
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