Lin Yu-ching pitched seven shutout innings of six-hit ball, Chen Chia-chui homered for the second straight game and the Chinatrust Brothers cooled off the red-hot Uni-President Lions with a 3-0 shutout at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to win their first game in the weekend series.
It was the second straight scoreless start for the righty out of National Taiwan Sport University, as Lin looks to guide the Brothers into a strong month for a chance to play in the postseason.
Even though he did give up six hits on the night, his seven strikeouts with no walks more than offset the hits to put a big smile on skipper Hsieh Chang-han’s face.
Unbeaten in their past five contests, the home Cats entered the game in search of a big win to add to their five-game unbeaten streak following Friday night’s rain-shortened one-all tie against the men in the golden uniforms.
With staff ace Shairon Martis on the mound and his under-three ERA on the line, the odds were definitely in the Lions’ favor, even though the Brothers had also won two in a row prior to Friday night’s series-opening tie.
As it turned out, Lin outpitched Martis on the night, as the latter gave up two runs on four hits over 5-2/3 innings of work to miss a quality start by an out and fall short in his bid for his ninth win of the year.
Chen Chiang-ho’s timely single off Martis broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth for the Brothers, who struggled through the first four frames against the Lions starter before finally solving him.
That was the edge that the Brothers needed, as Chou Si-chi’s two-out single in the sixth scored their second run of the game to set up Chen’s solo blast in the seventh that sealed the victory.
Failure to come up with much-needed timely hits proved costly for the Cats, as they had no runs on the board to show for the seven hits they managed off the Brothers’ pitching.
Monkeys 11, Rhinos 4
The last-place Lamigo Monkeys knocked off the top-ranked EDA Rhinos in an 11-4 final at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to even their weekend set in Taoyuan at one win apiece.
Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu’s two-run single capped a six-run sixth as the Primates rallied from an early 0-2 deficit to pocket a much-needed win that nipped a slide stretching over three games in the bud.
The win also avenged Friday night’s lopsided loss for the Monkeys by the same score, in which the Rhinos teed off against the Lamigo pitching with 20 hits.
Picking up the win was starter Wang Yi-cheng, who allowed two runs on eight hits over seven effective innings of work to improve to 7-2 for the year.
Tagged with the loss was Rhino reliever Lin Yen-fong, who served up three runs on two hits in 1/3 inning of play for his second loss of the season.
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