The Chinatrust Brothers claimed the second-half title with a 3-0 blanking of the Uni-President Lions at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night.
With the title on the line and the stadium packed with thousands of anxious fans looking to shower the field with celebratory ribbons, the men in the golden uniforms managed to eke out a victory against their archrivals from Tainan in grand style to advance to the upcoming Taiwan Series.
The win also capped one of the greatest turnarounds in league history, as the Brothers rallied from a last-place finish in the first half with a strong second half to edge past the second-placed EDA Rhinos by a half-game for the second-half title.
Photo: Liberty Times
“This is indescribable; I’d like to thank all the fans for their support,” starter and game-winner Chris Cody said after the game.
He saved his best for last by going the distance against the Lions with a season-high 14 strikeouts in a three-hit gem to improve his season mark to 7-2 in just 14 starts.
Other than allowing the Lions’ Tang Chao-ting to reach second with two outs in the eighth, the lefty out of New York’s Manhattan College did not allow any Lion runner past first base in the entire game.
“[Cody] was really able to rise to the occasion to win the big game for us,” a very relieved and pleased Chinatrust skipper Hsieh Chang-han said after the game.
Hsieh was one of the biggest supporters in convincing the Brothers front office to bring in Cody for the second half.
Also starring for the Brothers by going 2-for-4 with an RBI on the night was team captain Chou Si-chi, who was the only man to collect more than one hit against a stingy Lions pitching staff to help his team prevail.
An error by Lions third baseman Liu Yu-chen in the bottom of the second that could have held the runner at second with one out, instead of having runners on second and third with no outs, helped the Brothers score their first run of the contest in the inning.
Chinatrust added to their lead in the fifth when Chou came up big with a two-out double off Lions starter Liao Wen-yang to drive in the runner from second that made it 2-0.
That was more than ample with Cody on top of his game, even though his offense was able to score again in the sixth on Chen Chiang-ho’s RBI double to conclude all the scoring.
Next up for the Brothers is scheduled to be the Lamigo Monkeys, who are to open this year’s Fall Classic at home at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. The opening pitch is scheduled for 5:05pm on Saturday.
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