Back-to-back homers by Chen "The Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan and Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min helped the Brother Elephants beat the top-ranked President Lions 7-3 in Hsinchu on Wednesday night to split the two-game series.
The Elephants pair, who played a key role in the team's legendary "threepeat" from 2001 to 2003, showed that the Elephants offense could still crush any pitching staff in the league -- despite having suffered three straight losing seasons due to a lack of strong pitching -- by going a combined 4-for-8 with three RBIs to win the game.
The solo blast by Peng in the bottom of the third was especially sweet, because it left him just one homer short of joining the elite club of six players who make up the 100 home run club.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I try not to let that affect my game, but I'd be lying to you if I said I don't think about it at all," Peng said after the game.
He will have roughly 20 more at-bats in the Elephants' four remaining contests to get that 100th homer.
The Elephants wasted little time getting to Lions starter Brian Reith, earning a pair of first-inning runs on Chen Chih-yuan's RBI double and a run-scoring single by switch-hitter Chen Huai-shan.
The Lions returned the favor in the top of the second through a sacrifice fly by Kao Chih-kang and an infield single by Hsu Sheng-jeh.
But that was all the Lions hitters could produce offensively because Chuang Wei-chuan pitched four shutout innings of two-hit ball after relieving Yeh Yong-jeh.
While Chuang was busy keeping the Lions hitters in check, the Elephants offense had a field day facing Reith. Two homers in the third made it 4-2, and three more runs came via Cheng-wei's two-run shot and Wang Jin-yong's RBI single in the fourth for a commanding 7-2 lead.
Trailing by five, the Lions managed to score once more in the seventh inning against the Elephants' Todd Moser. But that was as close as they got, as the Elephants closer quickly settled in and tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth to secure the win for Chuang with his league-leading 13th save of the year.
Picking up the loss after a three week-long break from action was Reith, who looked rusty with seven runs allowed on as many hits over three-and-a-third innings, including three homers, in only his second setback of the year.
Cobras 7, Bears 3
Failing to take advantage of the Lions' loss, the La New Bears went down by the same 7-3 margin to the Macoto Cobras in Kaohsiung on Wednesday. They remain a game behind the Lions with five games left in the regular season.
RBI doubles by Wang Chuan-jia and Chou Si-chi on top of a two-run homer by Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien capped a four-run fifth that turned a 1-2 deficit into a 5-2 lead for the Cobras as they went on to beat the defending champs in an impressive road win.
Cobras starter Chang Hsien-chih was credited with his 12th win of the year to snap a two-game losing streak with six solid innings of three-run ball on eight hits to match his total wins from last year.
Tagged with the loss in his first start of the year was Suzuki Macoto. The Bears pitcher failed to deliver the performance his skipper was looking for, surrendering five runs on eight hits.
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