The CTBC Brothers on Tuesday in a makeup game that had spanned two months limited the Uni-President Lions to one run to clinch the CPBL half-season title in a 6-1 victory.
To mark the occasion, team sponsor CTBC Bank yesterday announced limited-time offers, while other sponsors are offering discounts on dining and shopping.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, when Brothers southpaw Jose De Paula struck out the Lions’ final batter, Kao Kuo-ching, streamers in the team’s trademark yellow filled the air over the 5,500 capacity crowd in Tainan Municipal Stadium.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
De Paula had started on the mound in the same stadium on May 26, when play was suspended due to rain, with the Brothers leading 1-0 at the end of the second inning.
The league had rescheduled the game for Tuesday, when play resumed at the top of the third inning with the teams’ same starting pitchers, the Brothers’ De Paula and the Lions’ Chiang Cheng-an.
The Brothers led 4-0 at the end of the third frame, having brought in four runs off of four hits and two walks. A key hit came from shortstop Chiang Kun-yu, who drove two men home on a bouncer up the middle.
It was all the run support De Paula needed to coast to a 6-1 triumph.
Improving his record to 8-5 with a 4.03 ERA, the Dominican lefty registered the title win striking out 14 and scattering five hits. He gave up one run in the fifth inning.
Earlier in the season, De Paula’s performance as starting pitcher was inconsistent and he had five straight losses, but the Brothers coaches kept faith with him, trusting him to make needed changes.
By the middle of May, De Paula had turned things around and had eight consecutive wins.
“I have to thank our club’s coaching staff for helping me adjust my delivery and pitching strategy against hitters so that I was prepared to win in my starts over the past few months,” De Paula said after the game. “Of course, I had to rely on making good my pitches, plus lots of help from my teammates on defense.”
“It was great to see so many Brothers fans in Tainan attend the game, and I liked the tossing of the streamers to celebrate, as it’s different in other countries,” De Paula added. “It would be better to win it at our home park [in Taichung], but this is baseball — you don’t know when and where things will happen.”
Brothers manager Chiu Chang-jung thanked his coaches, players and the club executives for helping him to achieve a 36-26 record and seize the half-season title.
In Tuesday’s other game, the Rakuten Monkeys thrashed the Fubon Guardians 5-1 in New Taipei City. The Monkeys (32-25) moved into second, followed by the Lions (26-34) in third and the Guardians (22-34) in fourth.
Monkeys third baseman Lin Li’s solo homer in the eighth frame was followed by a three-run blast from shortstop Lin Cheng-fei, cementing their winning margin.
After finishing their remaining makeup games by Sunday, the players are to have four rest days before beginning the second half of the season on Friday next week.
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