Four unanswered runs in the top of the ninth inning rallied the Brother Elephants from a run down to top the Uni-President Lions 9-6 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night.
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s clutch single with runners at the corners scored the tying run, before Wang Sheng-wei and Huang Shih-hao followed with a sacrifice fly and a two-run double respectively to score the go-ahead runs in the game.
The win not only evened the weekend series between the two clubs at one apiece following Friday night’s loss for the Elephants, but more importantly dropped their magic number to five (M5) with nine games remaining in the regular season as they look to clinch the second-half title with a six-game lead over the second-placed Lions in the standings.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Starter Orlando Roman surrendered an uncharacteristic five runs in the opening frame after retiring the first two Lions batters he faced, but regrouped in a hurry to allow only one more run over the next six innings, giving his offense a chance to get the runs back.
That was exactly what happened as the men in their familiar yellow uniforms chipped away at the Lions’ lead by plating a pair of runs in the third and fifth innings and another in the sixth off the Lions pitching to pull within a run of the defending champions.
Leading by a lone run, the Lions bullpen held its ground in the seventh and eighth, despite allowing a base hit in each inning to place the tying run on with Lin Cheng-fong and Jerome Williams taking over the mound, but the hosts would finally run out of luck in the ninth as the Elephants strung together four hits and a pair of walks off a normally sure-handed Williams to run away with a wild win.
Picking up his league-leading 13th win of the year was Elephants right-hander Carlos Castillo, who made the most of his rare relief appearance in the eighth, before closer Ryan Cullen preserved the win with a scoreless ninth to register save No. 31 of the year.
Bears 12, Bulls 2
The La New Bears teed off against four different Sinon Bulls pitchers at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium last night, ringing up a dozen runs on 17 hits to humble the first-half champions.
Lin Chih-sheng added to his league-best 18 homers with a pair of long balls, the first off Bulls starter Lin Ying-jeh in the fifth inning and the second off Bulls reliever Chang Geng-hao in the eighth that rounded out the Bears’ scoring at an even dozen.
“I guess I am seeing the ball a lot better as of late,” the home run threat for the Bears said after the game.
Also playing a star role for the Bears was rookie sensation Lin Hong-yu, who nailed a bases-loaded double and an RBI single to account for four runs that further strengthened his case to be considered for the Rookie of the Year award.
Starter Kuo Jien-hong was credited with the win for his six innings of one-run ball, while the loss went to his counterpart Lin, who allowed eight runs on as many hits in four-and-a-third innings of work.
Today, Typhoon Fanapi permitting, the Bears and Bulls face-off again in Kaohsiung at 5:05pm, while the Lions and Elephants resume hostilities in Tainan at the same time.
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