The struggling EDA Rhinos snapped an eight-game slide with a solid 8-4 win over the Chinatrust Brothers at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night to keep their second-half title hopes alive.
Even though they are not likely to catch the top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys, who also won their contest against the Uni-President Lions at the same time, it was still a big win for the Rhinos, who desperately need anything positive to carry them past their dire situation.
Cheng Da-hung’s two-run single with the bases loaded got things moving in the right direction for the Rhinos, who ended up plating four in the opening frame to spot starter Gabriel Hernandez a rare multi-run lead.
After the visitors managed to up their lead to 5-0 in the second inning, the Brothers finally broke through in the bottom of the third with two runs off Hernandez on Jim Negrych’s RBI single and Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s sacrifice fly to make it 5-2.
That was as close as the Brothers got, with Hernandez tossing shutout ball from the fifth through the seventh, before being pulled after surrendering his third run of the game in the eighth. He went on to pick up win No. 2 of the season in just his fourth start.
Tagged with the loss for the Chinatrust Brothers was starter Lin Yu-ching, who allowed seven runs (five earned) on nine hits in 3-2/3 innings to fall to a 1-6 mark for the year.
MONKEYS 6, LIONS 3
The Lamigo Monkeys won their fifth straight game by defeating the Uni-President Lions 6-3 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night, thanks to Chan Chih-yao’s clutch single that jump-started a three-run seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie wide open.
The game-breaking three-run surge in the seventh came right after the Primates had scored two, with Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu going deep against Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-lung in the bottom of the sixth for his 14th blast of the year.
Picking up his league-best ninth win of the season was Monkeys starter Jared Lansford, who fell behind in the third after coughing up an early1-0 lead, but kept the Lions’ offense at bay just long enough to give his offense the necessary time to bail him out.
He allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning six and walking a pair to improve to a 9-1 record.
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