There were tears of joy from CTBC Brothers starter Wu Che-yuan on Wednesday as his team completed a four-game sweep of the CPBL Taiwan Series to take home the championship trophy for the second consecutive year.
Thousands of yellow streamers showered the stands at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium as the Brothers secured back-to-back titles after winning four consecutive games in the best-of-seven series, culminating in Wednesday’s 3-2 victory over the Rakuten Monkeys in the championship’s 33rd edition.
Wu — who struck out six, while giving up five hits and one home run in 91 pitches over seven innings — had tears in his eyes during a post-game interview late on Wednesday, but insisted that they were due to joy.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
“Are you crying?” the presenter asked.
“No, I’m so happy,” he said.
The righty paid tribute to his coaching staff and the crowd.
“Thank you to the coaching staff for giving me the opportunity to perform,” he said. “Thank you everyone for attending and cheering for us.”
The stadium exploded with yellow streamers as Brothers closer Lu Yen-ching got the Monkeys’ Chu Yu-hsien to swing at a high pitch for strike three in the top of the ninth, marking the ninth time the Brothers have won the title following victories in 1992, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010 and last year.
The Brothers made it 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning when shortstop Chiang Kun-yu knocked the ball out to left field off Monkeys starting pitcher Wang Yi-cheng for an RBI single as Yueh Cheng-hua scored from second base.
The Monkeys leveled in the top of the second with a homer that flew high over right field from the bat of designated hitter Liao Chien-fu.
In the bottom of the second, Brothers second baseman Yueh Tung-hua delivered an RBI single to right field for Wang Wei-chen to reach home and put his team back in the lead.
They made it 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth after Brothers catcher Francisco Pena had an RBI hit to bring Sung Sheng-jui home.
In the top of the eighth, Monkeys center fielder Chen Chen-wei hit a ground ball for Kuo Yung-wei to score, narrowing the gap to 3-2, but they failed to capitalize in their final three at-bats.
Wu was named the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), while teammate Yueh Cheng-hua was crowned this year’s Taiwan Series MVP.
Brothers manager Lin Wei-chu said after the game that it felt good to win the championship in front of a full crowd in his hometown of Taichung.
“Thank you to the fans for the support you have shown our players, who went through some low points, but ultimately achieved the goal of winning the championship,” Lin said.
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