Chung “Yo-Yo Man” Cheng-yo’s two-out single with the bases loaded scored the tying runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and Yu Teh-lung followed with the go-ahead hit to lift the Lamigo Monkeys past the red-hot Brother Elephants 6-4 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only avoided a clean sweep against the Elephants at home over the weekend, but also gave them a much needed win after they lost nine of their previous dozen to drop out of contention for the first-half title.
Three first-inning runs off Lamigo starter Huang Chin-chih by the Elephants got the visitors off to a great start as they led 3-1 after the opening frame and upped their lead to 4-2 through the seventh with the help of the solid pitching of starter Lin Yu-ching.
However, with the team down by a deuce, the hosts rallied for four runs against top Elephants setup man Guan Da-yuan by batting around the order in the bottom of the eighth to turn a 2-4 deficit into a 6-4 lead.
The Elephants made things interesting in the top of the ninth by loading the bases with two outs on a pair of singles against Guan, but the poised hurler got pinch-hitter Chen Chih-hong to ground out to third to preserve the win.
RHINOS 11, LIONS 4
Lin Wei-en’s fourth-inning single with runners at the corners broke a 2-2 tie and the EDA Rhinos never looked back as they trounced the Uni-President Lions at Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung last night to sweep the weekend series.
The win also widened the top-ranked Rhinos’ lead over the second-placed Lions, who dropped their seventh straight to trail the Rhinos by 3.5 games in the standings.
The hosts, who celebrated Manny Ramirez’s birthday by posing for a photo session wearing long braided wigs to resemble the former major league player’s trademark hairstyle prior to the game, roughed up the Lions pitching in the middle innings by piling on eight runs between the sixth and the eighth to blow the game wide open.
Even though Ramirez was hitless on the night for just the second time in the past 15 games, his teammates more than made up for it by pounding out 15 hits to dominate the Lions’ pitching.
Picking up the win was starter Lai Hong-cheng, who allowed two runs, despite giving up nine hits over five frames.
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