Chen Bo-cheng’s two-out single with men on first and second scored the tiebreaking run in the top of the eighth inning and the Sinon Bulls went on to top the Lamigo Monkeys by a 2-1 margin at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to sweep the three-game weekend series.
The win not only upped the Bulls’ win streak to a season-high four games, but it brought them out of the cellar briefly as they traded places with the Brother Elephants for third spot in the standings before moving back down after the Elephants won the night cap of their doubleheader against the Uni-President Lions yesterday.
The red-hot Bulls wasted little time getting to Monkeys starter Leonard DiNardo as they led off the game with a single by Yu Hsien-ming, who scored on the next at-bat on a double by Su Jien-rong to take a 1-0 lead.
DiNardo regrouped in a hurry as he retired the next three batters to get out of the inning without further damage.
The Bulls’ 1-0 lead lasted through the fourth as starter Lin Chi-wei had given up just two hits to a potent Monkeys lineup before an error by his defense in the fifth allowed the leadoff man to score for the Monkeys’ first and only run of the contest, tying the game at 1-all.
That was all the runs either team scored against the dominant pitching of DiNardo and Lin before Chen’s clutch single turned the tables in favor of the visitors.
Leading by a slim run going into the bottom of the ninth, the Bulls looked to Lin Keh-chien to close the door on the hosts, which the righty promptly delivered despite allowing the leadoff man to reach on another error by the Sinon defense.
Picking up his first win of the year was Lin Chi-wei, who went eight innings strong to beat DiNardo, whom despite taking the loss, pitched a complete game.
Lions 7, Elephants 3, Game 1
Elephants 10, Lions 3, Game 2
The Uni-President Lions clinched their three-game series against the Brother Elephants, winning the day game of the day-night doubleheader at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
Reliever Liao Wen-yang took advantage of a 4-1 lead that the Lions lineup provided him in relief of injured starter Chen Yi-huan and tossed four decent innings of two-run ball to lift the defending champs past the Elephants.
Leading the Lions lineup, which rang up 16 hits off the Elephants’ pitching, was Liu Fu-hao, who went a team-best 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
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