The Lamigo Monkeys ganged up on the Sinon Bulls yesterday, taking both games on the road at the Taichung Baseball Field by sizable margins to sweep the doubleheader in grand fashion on a surprisingly dry day in Greater Taichung.
The Bulls’ Lin Yi-chuan made Taiwanese professional baseball history by becoming the fastest player to hit 30 doubles in a season when he ripped one off Monkeys reliever Huang Chung-chen to right-center in the bottom of the ninth.
However, it was the lone highlight for the hosts in a 12-3 loss in Game 1 as the Primates dominated from the get-go by scoring four runs through the fifth before blowing the game wide open with a four-run seventh and ninth to put the game away long before the final out.
Photo: Chan Chao-yang, Taipei Times
Leading the attack for the Monkeys were Lin Chih-ping and Yu Te-long, who went a combined 5-for-8 with five RBIs to humble the Bulls pitching. Also starring was Lin Chih-sheng, who went deep against the Bulls’ Wu Cheng-hsien on a monstrous shot deep to center for his eighth homer of the season to tie him with the Uni-President Lions’ Kao Guo-ching for the league lead.
That was more than ample to for Lamigo starter Ken Ray, who went eight frames in a one-run effort, unearned — despite giving up 10 hits — to win his fifth of the year.
Taking the loss was Sinon rookie starter Hsu Wen-chan, who lasted only four innings on 88 pitches with two allowed runs and four hits to fall to 1-4 for the season.
Photo: Chan Chao-yang, Taipei Times
MONKEYS 13, BULLS 4, GAME 2
The Monkeys picked up where they left off in Game 1 to trounce the Bulls again under the night sky thanks to a terrific outing by newcomer Ben Moore.
The right-hander out of the New York Yankees organization was rock solid in just his fourth CPBL start, allowing one run on four hits over seven innings to beat Lin Ying-jeh for his first win of the season.
Offensively for the Monkeys, all nine hitters in the starting lineup had at least one hit in the game, with Yeh Chu-hsuan and Huang Hao-ran connecting for three hits apiece to lead the pack. One of Yeh’s hits included a solo homer off Lin Ying-jeh for his first home run of the year.
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