The EDA Rhinos kept their playoff hopes alive with a 9-8 win over the Lamigo Monkeys on Wednesday evening.
The victory marked the Rhinos’ third in four games to leave them trailing the third-placed Primates by 0.5 games in the standings as of yesterday morning in a tough struggle to climb out of the cellar.
“The Rhinos have simply too much talent and power to be counted out of post-season play,” commentator Chung Chung-tsai said earlier in the week.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Chung was referring to the trio of former major leaguers in the Rhinos’ ranks — Luo Chia-jen (Houston Astros), Hu Chin-lung (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Lin Che-hsuan (Boston Red Sox), who have returned to their homeland to close out their careers.
While Hu and Lin have done their part at the plate with .382 and a .289 batting averages in their third and first CPBL seasons respectively, Luo has not been as consistent in his first full season as the Rhinos’ closer, having blown eight of 31 save opportunities reach a 2-5 mark and a generous 5.31 earned run average.
Wednesday night’s narrow victory was case in point as Luo entered in the ninth with a three-run lead and allowed two runs on three hits before retiring the final Monkeys batter to barely save the game.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
“The batters are getting more used to his velocity and tendencies,” Chung said regarding Luo’s recent outings.
“That is where Luo is getting hurt the most,” Chung said.
Luo had relied on his 150kph-plus fastball to get him out of trouble in the past, but hitters across the league are making the necessary adjustments to “catch up” with his signature pitch.
“Luo must mix up his pitch selections a bit more, because the hitters are cheating a little bit and looking [for fastballs] on fastball counts,” Chung said.
As long as the hitters are guessing right more often than not, Luo might lose his effectiveness as a closer.
Knowing the adjustments that the hitters have made against him, Luo needs to do the same with his pitch selections to keep opposing hitters on their toes just enough to keep his job for the rest of the season.
The Rhinos take on the Chinatrust Brothers in a three-game series to start tonight at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, while the Monkeys face the Uni-President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium.
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