The much anticipated three-game series between the league-leading Sinon Bulls and the second-placed Chinatrust Whales in Taichung didn't live up to its billing until the last game on Sunday with the visiting Whales leaving town on a winning note.
The 3-2 Whales victory was in contrast to the first two games of the series, where each team won one lopsided game apiece.
Down by 2-1/2 games prior to the start of the series, the Whales arrived in Taichung with hopes for a three-game sweep, only to see it smothered by Bulls starter Jeff Andra in a 8-1 Bulls win.
Andra greeted the Whales batters with all his pitches working to perfection through seven strong innings. Other than yielding a pair of singles in the fourth that led to the Whales' only run of the game, Andra kept the opposing hitters off balanced all night long, allowing just three hits while striking out five.
Whales starter Hsieh Cheng-hsun (
Game 2 of the series on Saturday proved that the Bulls are mortal as Whales hitters, led by first baseman Hung Chi-fong's (
Bulls skipper Chen Wei-chen (
The series finale took place on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of over 6,000 plus. The Whales jumped on a 2-0 lead in the third inning before adding another run in the sixth on Hung's solo homer off of Bulls starter Tsai Chung-nan (
The Bulls would not go away quietly as they finally got to Whales starter Nakayama Hiroaki in the bottom of the sixth, adding two runs of their own behind back-to-back run-scoring singles by right fielder Kao Chien-long (高健龍) and catcher Yeh Jung-chang (葉君璋) to make the score 3-2.
Concerned with his team's recent trend in blowing late-inning leads, Whales manager Lin Chung-chiou (
Kuo-Lee responded with a perfect ninth inning to preserve the win for starter Nakayama, his seventh of the season. The victory not only gave the Whales the edge in the series, it also reduced the Bulls' lead over the Whales in league standings to 1-1/2 games. It was only the second series that the Bulls have lost all season
"Lin Chao-huang came up huge for us in the seventh and the eighth [retiring the sides two innings in a row]," Whales manager Lin Chung-chiou said in the post-game interview. "That was the key to our victory."
Elsewhere in the league, the red-hot Brother Elephants kept their six-series non-losing streak in tact as they took three of four from the struggling President Lions on the Elephants' visit to Tainan.
After losing the series opener on last Tuesday by a score of 5-2, the Elephants easily handled the Lions in the remaining three games by a combined score of 23-9.
Led by all-star center fielder Chen Chih-yuan (
An example of how tough things have become for Lions manager Hsieh Chang-hern (
In the battle between the two former TML teams (Makoto Gida and First Securities Agan), on Thursday the Gida missed an excellent opportunity for a three-game sweep after a wild pitch led to the game-tying run for the Agan.
The nine-all game featured Gida first baseman Hsieh Jia-shian's (
The Gida finished the series with two impressive wins and a tie.
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