Luther Hackman pitched seven impeccable innings of two-hit ball and Liu Fu-hao drove in the lone run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth as the Uni-President Lions blanked the dmedia T-Rex 1-0 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was the second straight shutout win that Hackman had started in the past seven days as the converted starter out of the Lions bullpen scattered two singles while fanning eight and walking one to help lead his club to a critical win.
None of the dmedia hitters made it to second base the entire game, making it virtually impossible to back up a rare solid outing from its pitching, championed by starter Chang Hsien-chih, who played an impressive seven frames of one-run ball in a three-hit gem.
The win kept the Lions in pace with the league-leading La New Bears, who picked up a narrow 2-1 win over the Chinatrust Whales in Kaohsiung the same night to maintain a slim half-game cushion over the Lions in the standings.
BEARS 2, WHALES 1
Timely hitting by the La New Bears, coupled with an invisible error by the Whales defense late in the game, resulted in the Bears’ victory at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday evening.
A poor throw by Whales shortstop Wang Yi-min on a would-be inning-ending double play gave the Bears the break they needed as they scored what ended up being the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to break up a 1-all tie.
The Whales had their final shot at forcing the game into extra-innings with two hard-hit liners in the top of the ninth, but they both seemed to have a nose for a Bears glove as the La New defense came up big with two clutch catches to end the Whales rally.