Makeup week continued in Taoyuan late yesterday afternoon with the Lamigo Monkeys thrashing the Sinon Bulls 8-3 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
The win upped the Monkeys’ lead over the pursuing Brother Elephants back to a full game as the two teams go down to the wire in their chase for the second-half title.
The idled Elephants, who have two more games remaining in their regular season — including the season finale against the Monkeys at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Saturday — will now most likely need to win both games in order to win the second-half title.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Accompanied by a steady drizzle the entire way, hosts the Monkeys needed little time to solve Bulls starter Lin Keh-chien as they dialed up four second-inning runs off the sophomore righty, highlighted by Kuo Yen-wen’s two-run single, to jump to a quick 4-0 lead.
Even though the Bulls’ bullpen stepped in to keep the Primates off the board for the next five innings and give Bulls’ offense a chance to score the next three runs, cutting the Monkeys’ lead to a lone run, the elusive tying run that they desperately needed was never in sight against a tough Monkeys defense that turned a key double play to end a scoring threat in the third and gunned down a runner at the plate in the fifth to keep it 4-3.
The Bulls’ luck finally ran out against the potent Monkeys offense in the eighth as the hosts erupted for four runs on five hits to put the game away.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Foreign hurlers got the job done for the Monkeys, with starter Shane Youman tossing five innings of three-run ball and Bryan Corey backing him up with three innings of shutout relief, before Ken Ray retired the side in order in a perfect ninth to seal the win.
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