The CTBC Brothers have finally tasted victory in the Taiwan Series after an 11-year wait, winning the title last night by completing a four-game sweep of the Uni-President Lions at the Tainan Municipal Stadium.
The Brothers were crowned champions of Taiwanese professional baseball after a 5-0 win in Game 4 after being unable to get over the final hurdle in six of the past seven years.
It was a magical first year for CTBC manager Lin Wei-chu, a former standout with Japan’s Hanshin Tigers.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
He has brought a title to the starving Brothers fans — who have endured a string of second-place finishes — and also for CTBC owner Jeffrey Koo Jr, who attended the game and was hugged by his team’s coaches and players after victory was achieved.
However, the celebrations got started a little prematurely.
Brothers lefty Jose de Paula was on the mound with the two outs and two men on base in the bottom of the ninth when there was a foul tip.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The Brothers fans leaped to their feet in mistaken celebration and yellow streamers flew, but the cleaners were forced into action before the final strike was completed.
That prompted a repeat of the celebrations.
The Lions had Hu Chih-wei starting on the mound.
Hu spent eight years in North America, returning to Taiwan last year, mainly in the minor leagues, but had spent some time with the Tampa Bay Rays in the MLB.
He compiled a 4-4 record with a 4.74 ERA in 12 games in the regular CPBL season this year.
CTBC started Dominican righthander Jose Valdez, a late-season signing who had only two starting assignments and two relief appearances last month, registering a 1-0 record with a 2.45 ERA.
In the opening frame, CTBC leadoff batter Wang Wei-cheng reached base and, one out later, a sacrifice bunt moved him to third base and he came home on a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
CTBC padded their lead in the fourth, with designated hitter Chou Ssu-chi getting on base on a walk.
Outfielder Tsan Tzu-hsien singled, before a sacrifice bunt pushed the duo into scoring position and two more hits brought them home for a 3-0 lead.
CTBC piled on two more runs in seventh frame on RBI hits by outfielder Tsan Tzu-hsien and second baseman Yueh Tung-hua to make the score 5-0.
It is the first time that Taiwan’s professional baseball championship series has finished in December, as league games were suspended from the middle of May to the middle of July amid a nationwide COVID-19 alert.
Play resumed behind closed doors, before ballparks were allowed to open at 25 percent capacity in August and 50 percent in October.
They were fully opened in the first week of last month.
Attendance at Taiwan Series games bolstered the CPBL, with post-season tickets priced higher than regular-season contests.
Outfield seats sold for nearly NT$1,000 each, while infield seats were nearly NT$2,000, with higher prices for VIP boxes.
All of the games were either sold out or near capacity, a sharp contrast to the empty stadiums earlier in the year.
Game 1 in Taichung had a crowd of about 20,000 and Game 2 at the same venue had 18,888.
Game 3 in Kaohsiung had more than 10,000 people and last night’s Game 4 was at full capacity, with 10,000 at the Tainan Municipal Stadium.
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