Solid pitching by a pair of forgotten starters led the Macoto Cobras to back-to-back wins over the Chinatrust Whales earlier in the week as the serpents upped their winning streak to four in a row.
Tuesday night's contest in Sinjhuang featured five shutout innings from right-hander Yang Chi-jia in a two-hit gem before the Macoto bullpen followed with four scoreless innings of relief to preserve the 6-0 triumph.
The former standout from the Chung Cheng Industrial High School allowed just three base runners on over five magnificent innings before being pulled to rest a tender shoulder, to win for the first time in nearly two months, giving the shorthanded Macoto staff some quality innings in the process.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The manager told me to give him however many innings I can without hurting myself, since we are a couple of guys short for the four-game series this week, so I did what I could," Yang was quoted in the Chinese-language press as saying after the game.
His five solid innings for the game proved to be crucial for the Cobras as it kept the rest of the staff in decent enough shape to be called on in the remaining three games of the week.
Doing the damage from the plate were rookies Kao Wei, Chou Si-chi and Chen Chih-hong, who batted a combined 5-for-10 with five RBIs to account for the bulk of the run production.
Whales starter Alexander Herrera of Venezuela continued to struggle with his control as he walked four in six innings while giving up three runs over a losing effort. The four walks marked the fourth straight game in which he had issued at least that number.
Cobras 7, Whales 3
Tsai Shih-chin made the most of a rare start in Wednesday's game at Sinjhuang by one-hitting Chinatrust in five spectacular innings as the Cobras ran away with a 7-3 win.
In just his third start of the season, the normal mid-inning reliever for Macoto virtually silenced the Whales' bats by surrendering his lone hit to the Whales on a two-out single to Mike Lockwood in the top of the first before retiring 13 of the next 14 batters he faced.
Tsai was relieved by rookie righty Chang Hsien-chih at the start of the sixth, who held the Whales hitless for two more innings before they finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth by scoring three unearned runs off Puerto Rican veteran Felix Villegas to end the game.
Offensively for the serpents, designated hitter Wang Chuan-jia's multi-homer game against Whales staff ace Tseng Jau-hao accounted for five of the seven RBIs by the Cobras in the game. Australian slugger Thomas Brice also connected for a solo blast to write off Whales reliever Luo Jien-ming with his third home run of the season.
Tseng has continued to struggle against the Cobras' hitters this year. He remains winless in the four starts against Macoto thus far. He gave up five runs on eight hits in four short innings to lose for the sixth time this season.
Bears 7, Elephants 1
Chen Chin-fong hit his 14th homer of the season, while Kenny Rayborn wrapped up his league-best 12th win as the league-leading La New Bears won their fourth straight in a 7-1 decision over the Brother Elephants at Luodong on Tuesday night.
The former major leaguers showed why the Bears were the team to beat with a 2-for-4 hitting and seven strong innings of three-hit pitching respectively, leading their team to yet another win in convincing fashion.
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