The Lamigo Monkeys celebrated in front of a capacity crowd at their home Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, with a hard-earned 5-3 win over the Brothers Baseball Club to capture the first-half Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) title.
First baseman Chen Chun-hsiu sealed the victory with the game tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh when he blasted a two-run homer.
Two relievers came in to shut down the Brothers in the eighth inning and then it was up to Lamigo’s closer Chen Yu-hsun to get the final three outs in the ninth inning.
Chen picked up his league-leading 18th save, and at the final out Lamigo fans tossed blue ribbons from the stands to celebrate the title win.
Lamigo have the best league record with a 37 to 16 win-loss record, and one draw.
The Brothers are seven games behind in second place with a 30-to-23 record and three draws in the first half of the season.
The Uni-President Lions and Fubon Guardians are behind with 16.5 and 18.5 wins respectively.
The Guardians yesterday doubled up on the Lions 6-3 in the second contest of their mini-series in Hualien City.
First baseman Yang Kuang-wei and outfielder Chang Chien-ming each hit a home run to help the Guardians’ left-handed starter Lin Cheng-hsien.
The Brothers made Lamigo fans wait another day by prevailing 4-3 in extra innings on Saturday.
With the score tied at 3-3 after nine innings, outfielder Chen Tzu-hao smashed a solo homer off Lamigo closer Chen Yu-hsun to win for the Brothers in the 11th frame.
It was for Chen to surrender a homer with the outcome on the line, since he has the league’s best 17 saves as of Friday, and was tagged with only his second loss of the season.
On Saturday, Guardians pitcher Mike Loree tossed seven scoreless innings to pick up another win against the Lions in Hualien City.
Loree improved his ERA to 1.71, leading the CPBL’s pitchers, and boosted his record to 5-1 for the season. He yielded on two hits and struck out eight batters for the 5-0 shutout.
The Guardians took advantage of four walks and two hits in the fifth frame to pile up four runs in the fifth frame, and outfielder Wu Tsung-chun clobbered a solo homer in the next inning to account for scoring.
Loree always had the Lions’ number, as it was his sixth consecutive victory against them dating back to last year, and he had not given up a run through the past 26 innings in encounters against the Lions.
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