The CTBC Brothers last night beat the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 6-4 in Game 4 of the Taiwan Series at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The Lions’ second home game was the first in the series to feature Taiwanese starting pitchers, Tainan’s Kuo Chun-lin and the Brothers’ Cheng Kai-wen.
Fearing a rerun of Tuesday night’s massacre, the Lions in the bottom of the first inning quickly answered the Brothers’ first two runs, with left fielder Chiu Chih-cheng scoring off a double from center fielder Chen Chieh-hsien, while Chen scored off a fly ball from designated hitter Lin An-ko, who in turn was sent across home plate by an RBI from catcher Lin Dai-an.
Photo courtesy of the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions via CNA
Kuo did not allow a hit in the next two innings, until third baseman Wang Wei-chen tied it 3-3 in the fourth, which designated hitter Chen Tzu-hao followed with a home run in the top of the fifth to take the lead.
The Lions woes worsened in the sixth inning. Shortly after Dominican pitcher Hector Perez took the mound to relieve Lin Shao-en, Brothers’ center fielder Yueh Cheng-hua hit a fly ball to right field, sending in two to stretch their lead to 6-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, second baseman Lin Tzu-chieh added another run with an RBI that sent in Lin An-ko.
Game 5 starts tomorrow at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
On Tuesday night, the Brothers dominated the Lions 10-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Both franchises are competing in their 16th Taiwan Series, having split their league-most six head-to-head matchups before this season.
At a post-game news conference, both managers said Tuesday’s sixth inning was the turning point, when the Lions failed to capitalize on bases loaded with only one out.
“I think we still had a chance offensively. We just couldn’t get a clutch hit in that key inning. It might have been a different story if we had,” Lions manager Lin Yueh-ping said.
Their woes started in third inning, when the Brothers took a 3-0 lead, partly due to starting pitcher Logan Ondrus’ control issues, which included allowing a bases-loaded walk.
Tainan also struggled at the plate, recording just one hit in the first five innings off Kirk McCarty. Their best opportunity came in the bottom of the sixth when they loaded the bases with one out with veteran Chen Yung-chi at bat.
The Brothers emerged unscathed, replacing McCarty with Lu Yen-chiang and drawing Chen into a double play. Lu was later named Most Valuable Player of the game.
Brothers manager Keiichi Hirano praised 28-year-old lefty Lu as the most reliable arm in the bullpen.
“We put him on the mound knowing we couldn’t have done better even if he gave up a hit, and he lived up to our expectations,” Hirano said.
The game shifted decisively in the seventh inning, when Tseng Song-en hit a three-run homer, extending the Brothers’ lead to 7-0.
As of Tuesday, Tseng was batting .462 in the series with six hits, including two home runs.
According to CPBL records, teams who have taken a 2-1 lead in the Taiwan Series have won the championship eight out of 13 times.
However, apart from the Brothers’ sweep in 2021, each series between the two teams has gone to at least six games.
“In the face of strong opponents like the Lions, we will always approach the series as challengers, no matter what,” Hirano said.
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