Lin Chih-ping’s two-out single with the bases loaded broke a five-all tie in the bottom of the eighth and the Lamigo Monkeys went on to defeat the Chinatrust Brother Elephants 6-5 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to take the day game of the day-night doubleheader.
The makeup contest for Saturday’s rainout saw the visiting Elephants plate three quick runs off Lamigo starter Wang Yi-cheng in the top of the first on the strength of a pair of doubles and walks and a single.
However, the home Primates answered with a run of the their own in the bottom of the same inning off Elephants starter Cheng Kai-wen, before tying things up with a two-run fourth, when Lan Yen-luen pounded a double to left that scored Tsai Chien-wei, followed by Chan Chih-yao’s RBI single to right.
The three-all tie lasted less than an inning as the Elephants quickly took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth that chased Wang, only to see Cheng returned the favor an inning later when Chan drove in his second run of the game with another single to right.
Lin followed with his second RBI in the game on a fielder’s indifference.
The Elephants tied the game up for the third time in the top of the seventh on Chen Tzu-hao’s solo blast off reliever Huang Wei-sheng, setting the stage for Lin’s go-ahead strike in the eighth, before Miguel Mejia pitched a scoreless ninth for his league-leading seventh save of the year.
Reliever Chen Yu-hsun was credited with the win for tossing a scoreless eighth, while the loss was charged to his counterpart Wang Tzu-an for giving up the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth.
LIONS 19, RHINOS 6
Six runs by the Uni-President Lions in the top of the second set the tone early in the game as they erupted for 19 runs against the EDA Rhino pitching to come away in a 19-6 blowout victory at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon in the day game of their day-night doubleheader.
The slugfest that featured 25 combined runs on 34 hits and lasted nearly four hours was all-Lions from the second inning on, despite an early run scored by the Rhinos off Lion starter Liao Wen-yang, who lasted through the seventh with four allowed runs on eight hits to pick up his second win of the season.
Taking the loss for the Rhinos was starter Lai Hong-cheng, who served up eight runs over three frames on nine hits and a walk in his third start of the season.
In their night game, the Monkeys topped the Elephants in a 2-1 thriller to sweep the three-game series.
In the other night game, the Rhinos rallied from being one run behind in the top of the eighth to eventually defeat the Lions 6-5.
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