The Fubon Guardians on Sunday finally snapped their nearly seven-month road win drought, shutting out the CTBC Brothers 1-0 at the Taipei Dome.
The nail-biter ended the Guardians’ embarrassing slump outside the Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium that had stretched more than 200 days.
Their 10 straight road losses this season tied the CPBL record, first set by the Guardians themselves in 2017.
Photo: CNA
Their last win on the road was on Sept. 28 last year, when the Guardians defeated the Wei Chuan Dragons 7-3 at Tienmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei.
The game also halted the Guardians’ five-game losing streak.
“It’s probably because we were on a losing streak — our hitters wanted to step up even more with runners in scoring position, but that made their approach stiffer,” Guardians manager Chen Chin-feng said.
Photo: CNA
The sole run of the game came in the top of the ninth inning from center fielder Shen Hao-wei, after the Guardians went hitless in their first four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The Brothers remained hitless against starting pitcher Huang Pao-lo until the seventh inning.
Huang, the Guardians’ third overall pick in the 2022 first round, who turned 21 on Wednesday last week, struck out a career-high eight batters during 7-2/3 innings, with three walks on 97 pitches. Brothers starter Lu Meng-yang also did not allow a run in six innings.
Huang flirted with a no-hitter until the bottom of the seventh, when Hsu Chi-hung led off with a double. Huang then retired two batters on groundouts before walking Chiang Kun-yu — the last batter he faced.
“I actually realized I had not given up a hit midway through the game, but I did not think too much about it, because I knew I would eventually get hit,” the right-hander said.
Compared with last season, when he posted a 4.20 ERA over 64.1 innings in 16 games (including 11 starts), Huang has allowed just two runs over 16-2/3 innings in three starts this season, for a 1.08 ERA, with 17 strikeouts and no home runs allowed.
Despite the win, the Guardians remain at the bottom of the six-team league, with a 5-11 record, one game behind the Rakuten Monkeys. The Brothers stayed on top at 11-6, half a game ahead of the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions.
In Sunday’s other game, the Dragons pipped the TSG Hawks 2-1.
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