EDA Rhinos right-hander Lin Chen-hua extended his league-leading winning streak to seven with a 7-1 win over the Brother Elephants earlier this week to improve to 7-1 in the season so far.
The side-armer out of Chinese Culture University — who has won seven straight after a season-opening loss in March — was at his best during Wednesday night’s win over the Elephants, despite being beamed by a pitch in his lower right leg two outs into the bottom of the fifth before finishing off the inning.
“I’ll be OK if I take it easy for a bit,” Lin was quoted by local Chinese-language media as saying after suffering the blow.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
His playing status has yet to be determined, but he is scheduled to start in the Rhinos’ clash on Thursday next week against the Lamigo Monkeys in Greater Kaohsiung.
Lin’s unexpected success in his second season is one of the main reasons that the Rhinos are off to their best start in recent years — counting their record under their previous name, the Sinon Bulls — and they lead the league with a 26-14-1 record, 3.5 games over the second-placed Uni-President Lions.
“[Lin’s] outstanding performance seems to be contagious, because we have all played better since he started his seven-game winning streak,” Rhinos team captain Hu Chin-lung said after Wednesday night’s win.
The Rhinos’ defense showed off their leather work by coming up with several spectacular plays to keep Lin on the mound long enough to maintain a narrow 2-1 lead, before the offense took over in the eighth with five runs to wrap up the game.
Since opening the season with a mediocre 3-3 record, the Rhinos have gone 23-11-1 since April 3, with Lin going 7-0 in his eight starts over the same period.
Lin’s continued success will undoubtedly be the foundation for what is shaping up to be a promising season for him and his team.
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