With the Sinon Bulls, the Brother Elephants, the President Lions and the Chinatrust Whales all still in contention for the elusive second-half title, the final weekend of the 2004 Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) regular season will go down as the most exciting finish ever in the league's 15-year history.
The Bulls are in control of their own destiny in that if they win their three remaining contests against a weaker Macoto Cobras squad, they will win the second-half title outright and earn a berth to play the Lions in the upcoming Taiwan Series.
As for the Elephants, the defending champs must finish their three-game home stand against the La New Bears with a better record than the Bulls in their series against the Cobras, and hope for the Lions to falter in their remaining two games against the Whales in order to qualify for the postseason.
The Lions, having won Game 2 of the four-game series against the Whales on Wednesday, clinched the home field advantage for the Taiwan Series with the best overall record for the year and could end up with an automatic 1-0 lead to start the Taiwan Series, should they win the second half as well.
In order for the big cats to take the second-half title, they must not only beat the Whales in their two remaining games but also hope that both the Bulls and the Elephants lose their respective three-game series this week.
Compared to the Lions, the Whales' second-half title hope is much simpler, though bleaker: Win the last two games of the season against the Lions and hope for the Bulls and the Elephants to be swept in their respective series.
Earlier Games
The Whales ran their winning streak to six games on Tuesday with an impressive 3-1 road victory over the Lions in Tainan. In front of a hostile Lion crowd, rookie starter Tseng Jau-hao (曾兆豪) greeted the Lion hitters with six innings of three-hit ball. Other than the belt-high fastball that Lion designated hitter Luo Ming-ching ripped down the right field line for a run-scoring double, Tseng was on top of his game at all times. His solid showing off the mound was acknowledged by fellow hitter Chen Wen-pin, whose RBI double in the top of the fifth knocked home the game-winner to give Tseng his second win of the year.
Wednesday night's 5-3 win in favor of the hosting Lions clinched the home field advantage for the first half champs as they secured the best record for the season with the victory.
Taking advantage of four Whale errors early in the game, the Lions jumped to a 4-0 lead after five when they scored a pair of runs each in the third and fifth, highlighted by back-to-back scoring singles from center fielder Huang "Sugarcane" Kang-lin (黃甘霖) and "DH" man Luo Ming-ching in the bottom of the third.
The Whales actually made a game out of the Lions' 4-0 lead when reserve catcher Wang Hsin-ming crushed an offering from Lion reliever Kao Lung-wei (高龍偉) over the center-field fence in the top of the seventh to pull his team from within a run. That was as close as the Whales got because set-up man Chen Yang-kai and ace closer Michael Garcia combined for two scoreless frames to wrap up the win for the big cats.
Garcia earned his 100th career save with an innings of near-perfect relief when he came into the game for the Lions with two outs and runners at the corners in the bottom of the eighth and struck out Kuo Dai-yung to end the Whales' final scoring threat, before collecting three more strikeouts in the ninth to end the game.
The right-hander from southern California became the first player in league history to reach the century mark in career saves, adding yet another distinction to his already long list of accomplishments during the four seasons that he has been with the CPBL.
"It's been a while since I got the last one [save]," Garcia was quoted in the local media, referring to his last save which came on Oct. 2, before his team went on a seven-game, winless streak.
It was only fitting that Garcia would make his historical save against the same team that sent him to his first loss of the season on Sept. 25 in a 1-0 heartbreaker.
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