Hsieh Hsuan-ren’s two-run triple coupled with an error on the relay throw on the same play led to a three-run fourth as the Lamigo Monkeys roughed up the Uni-President Lions in a 5-2 final at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night to take the series finale over the weekend.
The win not only nipped a four-game slide for the Primates, but also helped avoid a series sweep by the Lions as they cooled off the first-half champs with timely hitting and solid defense to pick up win No. 6 in the second half.
Hsieh scored the first run in the game when he led off the third with a single, stole second, and scored two batters later on Lin Chih-sheng’s opposite-field single off Lions starter Yuya Kamada.
After a three-run fourth, the visitors would tack on another run in the fifth on a single and double by Lin and Kuo Yen-wen respectively to take a seemingly comfortable 5-0 lead, with starter Ken Ray well on top of his game in a two-hit effort through the fifth.
The Lions would eventually solve Ray with a pair of runs in the seventh when they strung together three straight singles to take away the shutout bid. That did not keep the American righty from picking up his seventh win of the year as the bent-but-would-not-break Lamigo bullpen took over with one out in the eighth and turned back two serious Lion scoring threats by stranding five over the final two frames to preserve the win.
Kamada allowed a season-high five runs on 10 hits in seven innings in just his second loss of the year, as he fell to a 12-2 mark for the season.
Elephants 4, Bulls 2
Tempers flared in the contest between the Sinon Bulls and the Brother Elephants, in which the Elephants prevailed by a 4-2 margin at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night
Sinon outfielder Chang Jien-ming’s long stare at Elephant starter Luis Gonzalez after being hit by an 0-2 pitch from the Puerto Rican lefty led to unpleasant exchanges between them.
Luckily, no punches were thrown as the prompt action on the part of both managers and the officiating crew quickly took control of the situation.
Trailing 0-1, Wang Sheng-wei’s nifty slide on a base-stealing attempt craftily avoided the tag that clearly beat him to give the Elephants a runner on second with no outs in the sixth. That set up the tying run for the Elephants in the inning as they took advantage of a deadly error in the eighth by scoring three runs over the eighth and ninth to sweep the weekend set.
Gonzalez was credited with his sixth win of the year, giving up a run on four hits while fanning eight and walking four to top the Bulls’ Lin Chi-wei, who suffered the loss for giving up two unearned runs in the game-turning eighth.
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