The EDA Rhinos capped a five-game winning streak with a 14-3 victory over the Uni-President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night and took over top spot in the league table, poised for a berth in the CPBL’s post-season Taiwan Series.
Cleanup man Lin Yi-chuan and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Hu Chin-lung led by example for the resurgent Rhinos as they each hit two homers to ignite the power surge and feasting on four Lions’ pitchers in a game that featured eight homers.
Lin slammed his 14th and 15th home runs of the season, while Hu contributed with his sixth and seventh four-baggers of the campaign. They hit a combined seven RBIs in the game.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Outfielder Kao Kuo-hui slammed a solo homer against the Lions’ American starting pitcher Bruce Billings to push his season total to 26.
Still in the chase for home run title, Kao was in third place after last night’s contest, behind the two power sluggers of Brothers Baseball Club, Chiang Chi-hsieng with 30 and Lin Chih-sheng with 29.
The eight home runs also tied a CPBL record for the most homers by one team in a regular-season game.
Billings was charged with the loss after tossing five innings and yielding six earned runs on six hits, with four of them home runs.
The Rhinos’ second pitcher Kuo Sheng-an got credited with the win after he came in the third inning to throw 3-1/3 scoreless innings without giving up a hit.
In the game last night, Brothers Baseball Club broke a 2-2 deadlock in their final at-bat with one run in the bottom of ninth frame to edge the Lamigo Monkeys 3-2 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
The Monkeys’ American reliever Zack Segovia drew the fans’ ire for the loss when, facing loaded bases, he threw a wild pitch into the dirt that catcher Lin Hung-yu could not handle, allowing the Brothers runner to come home from third base for the winning margin.
It has been a dramatic turnaround for the Rhinos over the past week after Fubon Financial Holding Co announced on Wednesday that it would purchase the franchise for NT$280 million (US$8.87 million), giving the players plenty of reason to cheer after having been unsettled in June after owners E-United Group decided to put the club up for sale.
Since the announcement, the surging Rhinos have won five in a row, beginning yesterday just half a game behind league leaders the Monkeys.
The Rhinos’ victory and the Moneys’ defeat yesterday would have made the new owners very happy as the Rhinos claimed first place for the first time in the second half of the season, staking a claim to challenge for the championship trophy.
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