The Lamigo Monkeys’ Chu Yu-hsien on Saturday broke a 30-year Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) record for half-season home runs after hitting two and pushing the grand total to 22.
The 27-year-old first baseman hit a three-run homer in the third inning and a two-run homer in the eighth inning to lead the Monkeys to an 11-4 win over hosts the Fubon Guardians at New Taipei City’s Xinzhuang Stadium.
Monkeys manager Hong I-chung called Chu’s performance “monstrous,” while Chu said that he hoped to maintain the momentum in the season’s second half.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The previous record of 21 home runs in a half-season was set in 1996 by Denio Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic, who played for the now-disbanded China Times Eagles.
CPBL teams at the time only played 100 contests per season, whereas today’s teams play 120.
In 2015, the Guardians’ Kao Kuo-hui set the record for home runs in a single season with 39.
Chu also leads the league with a .394 batting average, 95 hits and 73 RBIs — a rare achievement for a player who was a fourth-round pick in the 2015 draft.
The Monkeys on Tuesday last week won the CPBL first-half season title, making them eligible for post-season competition.
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