Yang Jien-fu made fools out of several Brother Elephants hitters on Sunday with a nasty slider that dropped late and hard to guide the Sinon Bulls to a convincing 6-1 win over their archrivals in Taichung.
The opening-day starter for the Bulls earned his team-leading 11th victory of the season by pitching well into the eighth inning in a four-hit, one-run gem before being relieved by bullpen mates Alfredo Gonzalez and Billy Sylvester.
The win by the Bulls capped a perfect week of play for the defending champs as they swept the Elephants in the four-game series by taking the first three by a total margin of four runs before Sunday's series-clincher.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The game actually began with the Elephants drawing first blood against Yang on Chen "Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan's two-out single over the middle in the top of the first for a quick 1-0 lead before the home Bulls fought back with six unanswered runs in the eventual win.
Run-scoring singles by Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and Tseng Yang-chih netted the Bulls a pair of runs in the bottom of the first before they added three more in the second, capped by Chang Jien-ming's two-run blast to deep-eight off Elephants starter Yeh Yong-jeh for a comfortable 5-1 lead.
The potent Sinon offense enjoyed a fine day at the plate with four different players getting multi-hit games, led by Yu Hsien-ming's 3-for-5 effort with one RBI.
PHOTO: LIAO YAHO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
As for the slumping Elephants, Chen's first-inning RBI single was the lone highlight of the game on a night where they never seemed comfortable facing Yang.
Bears 9, Whales 1
Behind a strong outing in a rare start by right-hander Huang Jung-chung, the La New Bears cruised past the Chinatrust Whales with a dominant 9-1 win in the night game of the doubleheader at Tienmu on Sunday to extend their non-losing streak to six straight.
Former high-school standout Huang, who had spent several seasons in the Boston Red Sox's minor-league system before joining the Bears at the start of this season, came out of the bullpen in place of an ailing Tsai Ying-fong with six solid innings of quality start for his first career victory in Taiwan.
Huang Long-yi's liner to right with the bases loaded got the Bears on the board with a 1-0 lead in the opening inning before the explosive Bears connected for four hits on top of drawing a walk in a four-run fourth to make it 5-0 through the first four frames of play.
The Whales finally managed to crack open the scoring gate in the sixth with a run on three singles off Huang to avoid a shutout after the Bears had scored twice more earlier in the inning.
But that was the only run that they could muster off the Bears with setup man Lee Fong-hua retiring the side in order over a perfect seventh and eighth before closer Ramon Morel finished off with a scoreless ninth to wrap up the win.
Bears 3, Whales 3
Three ninth-inning runs by the visiting Bears forced a dramatic 3-all tie in the day game versus the Whales on Sunday afternoon, wasting a stellar performance by Whales staff ace Tseng Jau-hao, who saw his would-be ninth victory of the season vanish in disappointment.
Even though the Bears did not end up with a win, the tie, sparked by a ninth-inning rally that avoided what would have been an embarrassing shutout loss for the league leaders at the hands of the fifth-placed Whales, provided them with a tremendous moral boost that kept their five-game non-losing streak intact.
Trailing 3-0 in the top of the ninth, the Bears put runners on second and third with one out on slugger Chen Chin-fong's double off the leftfield wall off Tseng to set up Pan Chung-wei's two-run double that brought home both runners.
Rookie Jiang Chih-tsong then followed with a clutch single off Tseng after the Whales pitcher had gotten the second out of the inning to knot things up at 3-all.
In came a wild Morel in his second game appearance of the day, issuing three walks during the ninth to load the bases before getting out of the jam by inducing a game-ending fly-out to deep-center that had his entire club holding its breath before a collective final sigh of relief.
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