Liu Fu-hao’s tiebreaking double off Huang Chin-chih in the bottom of the eighth inning scored the go-ahead run for the Uni-President Lions as they held on to top the Lamigo Monkeys 3-2 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to win Game 4 of the Taiwan Series.
It was the third straight one-run win that the Lions have picked up over their archrivals from Taoyuan, giving them a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven annual “Fall Classic,” one win away from clinching the coveted league title.
Tsai Jien-wei’s leadoff homer off -Lions starter Chen Yi-cheng put the on-the-road Monkeys ahead 1-0 in the top of the first only to see the home Lions return the favor with Chen Yung-chi’s equalizer, a towering shot to strait-away center field off Monkeys starter Shane Youman to tie the game at1-1.
The opportunistic Monkeys grabbed their second lead of the game at 2-1 when the Lions third baseman Chang “OEO” Tai-shan mishandled a line drive hit right at him by Huang Hao-ran.
What could have been an inning-ending double-play ended up giving the Monkeys an extra out, which led to ChenYen-fong’s RBI groundout in the top of the fourth.
The score remained at 2-1 until Kao Chih-kang tripled off Youman and scored on a passed ball against Monkeys catcher Chen Yen-fong in the sixth to tie the game at 2-2, setting the stage for Liu’s late-game heroics.
Lions reliever Wang Jing-ming was credited with the win for striking out the side in a perfect eighth, before Lin Yueh-ping retired the final three Monkeys batters to record the save.
It was Wang’s second win of the series following his Game 2 victory on Sunday.
Taking the loss was Huang, who pitched the Monkeys out of a jam in the seventh, but failed to do the same in the eighth in a losing effort.
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