Todd Betts' incredible 10-for-15 batting, with a pair of home runs and 12 RBIs over the past four games, has helped the La New Bears to the best start in team history with a 6-1 mark in their first seven games of the season.
The 32-year-old slugger, who played for Team Canada in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games after spending several years in the American minor league system, joined the Bears earlier this year and has made immediate impact by amassing a league-leading .560 batting average with 14 RBIs.
It was Betts' three-run blast in the opening inning of Friday night's contest against the Chinatrust Whales at Hsinchu that sparked an offensive explosion by the Bears which rang up 14 runs on 20 hits in a 14-3 decision.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
The Bears then batted around the order in a four-run second, highlighted by center fielder Huang Chung-yi's three-run shot to deep-center that knocked out Whales starter Du Chang-wei.
Trailing 7-0, the Whales got three runs off Bears starter Wu Si-yo in the bottom of the second on back-to-back RBI doubles by Kao Jung-chiang and Chen Wen-pin before a passed ball on a third strike scored the runner on second for the Whales' third run of the inning.
Wu and his bullpen mates then kept the Whales offense at bay the rest of the way for the 14-3 victory.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
Bears 4, Whales 2
In Thursday's contest at Sinjhuang the Bears erased an early two-run deficit with a three-run sixth inning and a one-run eighth for a 4-2 win.
Chi Jung-lin's infield single off La New starter Chris Wright got the Whales on the board before Huang Kwei-yu's line drive to left field made it 2-0 in favor of the marine creatures.
Whales starter Steve Smyth breezed through the first five innings on no runs and two hits before surrendering the 2-0 lead on consecutive solo homers to the Bears' Lu Jung-hsiung and Lin Chih-sheng and a run-scoring double to Betts.
Set-up man Hsu Chih-hua picked up his first save of the season with two-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit relief work, preserving the first win of the year for Wright.
As for the Whales, Smyth was tagged with his second loss of the season in a decent performance, allowing three runs on four hits (including the two homers) over five-and-a-third innings of work.
Lions 5, Cobras 4, 10 innings
Deng Shih-yang's fielding error on a routine grounder in the bottom of the 10th was fatal for the Macoto Cobras as the President Lions scored the game-winner two batters later on Chen Jia-wei's chopper to first base to break a 4-4 tie in a 5-4 Lions win.
The big cats broke out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second against Cobras starter Yang Chi-jia when shortstop Luis Ugueto's line-drive single scored a pair of runs before outfielder Liu Fu-hao took Yang deep for a two-run blast.
Down 4-0, the serpents finally got on the board in the top of the seventh on catcher Wu Jau-hui's grounder to third before knotting the game up at 4-all in the eighth on the strength of two singles, a double, a defensive error by the Lions and a passed ball by the Lions catcher.
Reliever Tseng Yi-cheng was credited with the win for retiring the two batters he faced in the top of the 10th, while his counterpart, Jose Paniagua, took the loss for allowing the unearned run that turned out to be the game-winner.
Cobras 3, Lions 3
A defensive error also played a big part in Thursday's contest when Cobras shortstop Kuo Ming-ren's miscue cost starter Lin En-yu a chance for his third win of the season.
It was Kuo's fielding error on a potential inning-ending double play that allowed the runner to reach third with Paniagua attempting to preserve a 3-2 lead for Lin.
Instead, the runner on third scored on the next play when right-fielder Kuo Dai-chi's sacrifice fly brought home the game-tying run to make it 3-3.
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