The EDA Rhinos roughed up the Brother Elephants with a pair of wins yesterday, sweeping the day-night doubleheader with a 9-3 victory in the afternoon and an 8-2 triumph in the evening at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu.
Lin Tsung-nan’s RBI single off Elephants starter Lin Yu-ching got things moving in the right direction for the visitors in the top of the second in the day game, as they plated two in the inning and followed it with a three-run fourth to put the game out of reach for the home Elephants. By the time all was said and done, the first-half champs had rung up 16 hits off the Elephants’ pitching to humble the home hosts.
Leading the Rhino attack, which had averaged just 1.5 runs per game in their four previous contests, were Cheng Jau-han and Chen Kai-luen, who collected three hits apiece in the game to champion the Rhino scoring spree.
Also starring was Chang Chien-ming, whose pinch-hit triple drove in the three runs in the fourth that knocked out the Elephants.
Shutting down the Elephants lineup with a two-hit gem in 7-1/3 innings of work was starter Matt Torra, who needed only 78 pitches to take the Elephants into the eighth before being relieved. He was credited with his sixth win of the year to beat his counterpart Lin Yu-ching, who did not have his A game on the day despite having won three of his last four starts.
Night Game
Things did not improve much for the hapless Elephants in the nightcap of the doubleheader, as they fell short by six in an 8-2 final despite outhitting the Rhinos 12-10 in the match.
The four errors committed by the self-destructive Elephants defense only made things worse, as three of the Rhino runs were unearned.
Starter Lin Chen-hua allowed two early runs to the Elephant offense in the first inning, but quickly settled in to last through the fifth without losing any more grounds to win his 14th game of the year.
Taking the loss was Elephant starter Tseng Song-wei, who surrendered seven runs (four earned) on as many hits over six innings of play to drop to a 10-7 mark for the season.
‧ Lions 5, Monkeys 5 (Day)
‧ Lions 8, Monkeys 3 (Night)
The Uni-President Lions also came up big with a 8-3 road win over the Lamigo Monkeys at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to take the day-night doubleheader yesterday.
After a ninth-inning rally by the Cats that brought the day game to a 5-all draw to rob the home Primates of a win, the visitors made sure there was no doubt about the outcome in the night game.
They connected for four runs off the Monkey pitching in the top of the eighth to blow a 4-3 lead wide open, highlighted by Yang Song-hsuan’s two-run triple off Monkey reliever Huang Chung-chen.
That made a winner out of Lions starter Nelson Figueroa, who allowed three runs (only one earned) on seven hits over six innings to improve to 7-4 for the season.
Monkey starter Tseng Jau-hao was charged with the loss for serving up five runs on nine hits over 6-1/3 frames. He is now 8-6 for the year.
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