The Lamigo Monkeys held the top-ranked Brother Elephants to a run in each of their two games in yesterday’s day-night doubleheader, humbling the Elephants by a 5-1, 3-1 margin at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City to sweep the two-game series.
Matt DeSalvo tossed five shutout innings of one-hit ball to lead the Primates in the afternoon contest before turning the game over to fellow countryman Paul Phillips, who kept the shutout intact through the seventh despite allowing the Elephants to reach base safely in the sixth and the seventh before serving the Elephants’ lone run of the game in the eighth to lose the shutout bid.
However, that did not keep the Monkeys from taking the day game as they struck for a pair of runs on a bases-loaded single by Chen Guan-ren against his former team in the fourth and added to the lead by three later in the game to run away with a 5-1 victory that made a winner out of DeSalvo. The American righty improved his season mark to 8-4 as he dropped his ERA to a league-best 2.10.
Offensively for the Monkeys, Chen’s perfect three-for-three hitting with three RBIs led an efficient attack that plated five runs on nine hits to give skipper Hung Yi-chung his 400th career victory.
Taking the loss was Elephants starter Lin Yu-ching, who allowed three runs on six hits over eight frames in another quality start, but failed to pick up the win as he fell victim to an anemic offense that managed to score just once against the Lamigo pitching, which bent but did not break to prevail in the end.
Monkeys 3, Elephants 1
In the nightcap between the two squads, it was the Monkeys on the road who fared better again in a 3-1 final, thanks to a solid effort by starter Ben Moore, who went 8-2/3 innings of strong pitching one-run ball to follow DeSalvo’s suit.
After a scoreless first and second, it was the Elephants who drew first blood in the bottom of the third, courtesy of a pair of doubles by Chang Min-yen and Chang Cheng-wei, the former leading off the inning with a two-bagger off Moore to put himself in scoring position and the latter driving him home on a rightfield liner.
That was all the offense that the Elephants mustered against Moore as the side-armer from Wisconsin, who played professional ball in Australia prior to joining the Monkeys, kept the men in the golden uniform off the board two outs into the ninth before handing the ball off to reliever Huang Chin-chih, who retired the only batter he faced with the tying run on to bail out the starter in the triumph.
Lions 3, Bulls 2
The Uni-President Lions edged past the Sinon Bulls in a 3-2 decision at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night to help starter Yuya Kamada improve to a 13-3 record for the year.
With the tying run 90 feet away, closer Lin Yueh-ping struck out the final Sinon batter he faced for his league-leading 16th save of the year, cutting the Bulls’ rally attempt short by a run.
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