Late-game drama kept fans on the edge of their seats in the first two games of the series between the Macoto Cobras and the Brother Elephants earlier this week as they played to a 1-1 split in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League.
Game MVP Lee "Rambo Junior" Chih-jeh of the Elephants turned a 7-6 deficit into an 8-7 victory on Tuesday with his two-run liner in the bottom of the ninth to open the four-game series in Pingtung.
The game began with the Elephants jumping to a quick 5-0 lead after just three innings of play on the strength of catcher Kuo Yi-fong's three-run blast off Cobras starter Hideki Sato in the second and cleanup man Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-ming's run-scoring single in the third.
The serpents would fight back with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth when shortstop Kuo Ming-ren followed Dominican slugger Wilton Veras's two-run shot off Elephants starter Nakagomi Sin with an RBI single to make it 5-3.
Another run by the Elephants in the bottom of the fourth made the score 6-3 until the top of the eighth when three serpent singles, along with a defensive error and a walk issued by Elephants reliever Liu Yi-chuan knotted the game at 6-6.
The Cobras went up 7-6 in the top of the ninth on second baseman Deng Shih-yang's one-run single before Rambo Junior's late-game heroics.
Elephants 3, Cobras 1
Cobras rookie sensation Lin En-yu tossed his second complete-game win in as many games in Kaohsiung on Wednesday when he held a powerful Elephants lineup to six hits in a 3-1 decision to remain undefeated for the season (3-0).
Lin had the Elephants hitters pinned to the wall for eight scoreless innings before yielding his lone run of the game in the ninth to break up the shutout.
With two on and two outs, the 24-year-old righty got red-hot Elephants hitter Chen Rei-cheng on a lazy fly out to shallow-center to end the game.
Offensively for the Cobras, first baseman Hsieh Jia-shien put his team on the board with a sacrifice fly to left in the fifth before Mario Ecarnacion deposited an eighth-inning offering from the Elephants' Chuang Pei-chuan into the centerfield bleachers for a two-run homer.
Bulls 9, Whales 7
Osvaldo Martinez got an ugly win in the Sinon Bulls' 9-7 downing of the Chinatrust Whales at Taichung on Thursday when the ace righty allowed seven runs in five innings of play and still managed to collect the win as the Bulls' offense cranked out nine runs to make up for the starter's off night.
Lions 9, Bears 3
Fifteen timely hits by the President Lions' offense knocked home nine runs in their 9-3 series-opening win over the La News Bears on Thursday to extend the big cats' winning streak to three games.
After surrendering a two-run homer to the Bears' Victor Rodriguez in the top of the first, Lions starter Doug Linton then settled down and pitched five solid innings for his fourth win of the season.
Tyrone Woods of the Chunichi Dragons was suspended Friday for 10 games and handed a US$5,000 fine for punching Yakult pitcher Shugo Fujii in Thursday's 1-0 win over the Swallows.
In the fifth inning of Thursday's game at Nagoya Dome, Woods, a native of Florida, charged the mound after being brushed back by an inside pitch and hit Fujii with a right hook to the head, knocking the Yakult pitcher to the ground.
Both benches then emptied as Fujii lay motionless on the mound. Woods was immediately ejected from the game.
case dismissed
Two Boston Red Sox fans who scuffled with New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield during a game last month won't be charged after a court dismissed the case Thursday for lack of evidence.
The clerk magistrate said there was no probable cause to charge Christopher House and Matthew Donovan with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. House and Donovan were ejected from Fenway Park on April 14 after House appeared to reach into the field of play make contact with Sheffield as the player chased down a ball in the outfield.
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