Chou Guang-sheng’s walk-off single drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Uni-President Lions rallied from one run down to top the Sinon Bulls 5-4 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only avoided three-game sweep for the Lions to the red-hot Bulls, more importantly it brought some much-needed confidence back to the Big Cats, who had lost seven of their past eight, to hand over the lead in the standing to the Lamigo Monkeys.
“This is a big win for us because a sweep would really have set us back,” Lion skipper Lu Wen-sheng said after the game.
His team led for a good part of the game, before a two-run homer by the Bulls’ Wu Tsong-jung put Sinon ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth to set up the late-game magic for the Lions.
Trailing by a run, the Lions led off the bottom of the ninth with a game-tying blast by Liu Fu-hao off Bulls reliever Shen Yu-jeh, before Kuo Jung-yo followed with a double off Shen to put himself in scoring position.
Lu opted to bunt Kuo over to third on the ensuing at-bat to put the winning run 90 feet away. before Chou’s game-clinching swing won the game in dramatic fashion.
Picking up the win was Kao Jien-san, who coughed up the lead by serving up Wu’s two-run shot, only to have his offense bail him out in the end.
Monkeys vs Elephants, PPD
Wet weather in Taipei kept the Lamigo Monkey from playing the Brother Elephants yesterday afternoon. The game was rescheduled for Oct. 8.
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