Amid the torrential rain that has drenched Taiwan for the past several days, the Lamigo Monkeys managed to sneak their way into the win column with a rain-shortened 1-0 triumph over the EDA Rhinos at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
Mike Loree was on top of his game for the hosts, with six shutout innings of three-hit ball that kept the Rhino hitters off the base paths, no matter how hard they tried.
SHUTOUT
That gave the Primates offense just enough time to plate a run off Rhinos starter Matt Torra, who tossed four innings of shutout ball on three hits in his own right.
That was before he served up a leadoff double to the Monkeys’ Chung “Yo Yo Man” Cheng-yo in the bottom of the fifth that set up Yeh Chu-hsuan’s RBI single that drove in the game-winner for the Primates.
TRAILING
Trailing by a run, the Rhinos looked well on their way to strike against Loree, with a leadoff walk and a single off the American righty to place runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the sixth.
However, Lin Yi-chuan grounded into a double play that was arguably the play of the game as Loree calmly struck out the next batter to strand the runner on third.
RAIN
A sudden downpour forced the umpire to suspend play after the top of the sixth, but the rain delay ultimately turned into the end of the game as there were no signs of the deluge letting up, giving the Monkeys a win that evened the weekend series at one game apiece.
Pocketing the victory was Loree, who improved to 8-10 for the season, while the loss was charged against Terra, who fell to 5-2 since joining the Rhinos in mid-July.
CLINCHER
The two teams will do battle once more this afternoon for the series-clincher, with both squads still very well in the hunt for the second-half title.
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