The Brothers Baseball Club downed the Lamigo Monkeys 5-0 in Taoyuan last night to conclude the CPBL regular season on a high note as fans await more action in the championship series, which is to start on Saturday next week.
In the final standings, the Brothers and the EDA Rhinos were the top two after their 120-game campaigns, taking first and second with 68-2-50 and 61-1-58 records respectively.
These two teams face each other for the championship crown in the Taiwan Series next weekend.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The Brothers took the first-half season title, while the Rhinos overcame adversity and surged to win the second-half title.
The Uni-President Lions finished third with 55 wins, while the Lamigo Monkeys ended a disappointing season at the foot of the table with 53 victories.
The contests last night and on Thursday capped an unusual season, with many high-scoring contests and balls flying over outfield walls with such regularity that some people have asked if the league has used “juiced-up balls” with higher bounce characteristics.
Numerous batting, home run, scoring and other offensive records were shattered.
Last night’s relatively low-scoring outcome might have been due to both sides calling on their reserves bench, testing younger players with the focus on Brothers slugger Lin Chih-sheng — also known by his Aboriginal name, Ngayaw Ake — in the home run race.
Lin did not get any good pitches to swing at yesterday, ending in a tie with Kao Kuo-hui of the EDA Rhinos, both hitting 34 homers this season.
Kao grabbed the home-run title, having fewer at-bats than Lin.
In the Thursday evening contest, the Uni-Presidents Lions smacked three homers among their 23 hits, on the way to a 22-4 trashing of the Lamigo Monkeys.
The Lions wrapped up the campaign without being shut out, scoring at least a run in all of their games, which had never been done by any team in the CPBL’s 27-year history.
Lamigo outfielder Wang Po-jung was the top hitter this season and rated as favorite to win the league MVP, setting league records with 200 hits and a 0.414 batting average.
Wang finished third for the RBI race with 105, second in stolen bases with 24, fourth in homers with 29 and first in total bases at 333.
Teammate Lin Hung-yu also had a stellar season to take RBI title by driving in 108 runs.
The catcher was second in total bases at 278.
Baseball fans this year bid farewell to the national team’s most prolific hitter, Chen Chin-feng, who announced his retirement after 11 season in the CPBL after becoming the first Taiwanese to break into US major leagues, playing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002.
This will be the last season for the EDA Rhinos, as Fubon Financial Holding last month announced it is to take over the ballclub in a NT$280 million (US$8.84 million) deal, with the company intending to move the team to Taipei.
Looking ahead to the Taiwan Series, Brothers head coach Wu Fu-lien said he has already set for the starting batting order and the pitchers for the first four games.
He said he would call on the US trio of Bryan Woodall, Nathan Long and Nick Additon, along with Taiwanese lefty Cheng Chi-hung in his starting rotation.
Rhinos head coach Yeh Chun-chang had his team’s three import pitchers in mind as starters.
However, he said that the results would depend greatly on his Taiwanese pitchers, with their set-up and relief work vital to get good results.
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