Lin Ying-jeh tossed five scoreless innings of two-hit ball, Lin Yi-chuan drove in a pair of runs with his third home run of the season, and the EDA Rhinos blanked the Uni-President Lions 3-0 at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night.
The rain-shortened contest that lasted only five innings not only nipped the Rhinos two-game non-winning streak, but also lifted them to a tie with the Lions for the lead in the standings, the two clubs sharing an identical 10-6 record a month into the season.
The visiting Rhinos jumped to a quick 1-0 lead in the opening frame when Hu Chin-lung singled off Lion starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen with two outs and scored one batter later on an RBI single by Manny Ramirez.
Du Du would survived the inning without further damage and pitched well over the next two innings before allowing a single to Hu one out into the fourth to set up Lin Yi-chuan’s two-run blast to deep right that made it 3-0.
The three-run lead proved ample for the Rhinos with Lin Ying-jeh holding his ground by retiring all but one of the first eight batters he faced to humble a Lions lineup that features national team players.
Other than a leadoff single to the Lions’ Kuo Jung-yo in the third and a soft grounder to Kuo that in the fifth was ruled an infield single, the lefty was well on top of his game en route to his first win of the year.
Taking his second loss of the year was Pan who allowed three runs on five hits in as many innings.
With the rain showing no sign of abating after a 60-minute delay, the game was announced completed after five innings by the home plate umpire.
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