Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen pitched six scoreless innings of two-hit ball and Jose Castillo drove in three runs with a pair of doubles as the Uni-President Lions shut out the Brother Elephants 8-0 in Tainan on Saturday night to end a three-game slide.
The win, coupled with a La New Bears loss to the Sinon Bulls in a rain-shortened game in Kaohsiung, helped the Lions reclaim the lead in the standings as they swapped places with the Bears in a tight race for the first-half title.
Castillo’s RBI-double off Brother starter Yeh Ding-ren put the home Cats on the board in the bottom of the first and Chen Lien-hong followed with a one-run single to give Du Du a quick 2-0 lead.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Two more runs by the Lions — courtesy of Castillo’s bases-loaded double — promptly upped their lead to 4-0 and that was more than ample for Du Du as he cruised through the sixth en route to his third straight win.
The six spectacular innings by Du Du gave the Lions ace 1002-and-a-third in an illustrious career. He became just the 11th player in league history to reach the millennium mark on Saturday, adding yet another milestone to a distinguished list of accomplishments for the former No. 1 draft pick.
BULLS 5, BEARS 2
Homers by Lin Yi-chuan and Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan in the opening inning led to four quick runs for the Sinon Bulls as they bounced back from a tough loss on Friday with a 5-2 win on Saturday to even the three-game set at one game apiece.
Trailing 0-4, the home Bears would get two of the runs back in the bottom of the second on an RBI-groundout by Tsai Tsung-yo and a double by Huang “Easy” long-yi that slashed the Sinon lead in half.
The Bulls tacked on another run in the fourth, making it 5-2 until the seventh when umpire Chang Chang-rong decided to call the game because of heavy rain.
The Bears’ loss not only ended a six-game winning streak, but cost them the lead in the standings.
The Bears now trail the Lions by a half-game with four games remaining in the first half of the season.
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