Defensive miscues proved costly for the La New Bears as they dropped a 1-3 decision to the Uni-President Lions at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Friday evening to lose the weekend series opener.
With Lions runners at the corners and one out in the top of the seventh, Pan Wu-hsiung bounced a chopper to second for what would have been an inning-ending double play to get the Bears out of the inning unharmed with the Lions leading 2-1.
Instead, Bears second baseman Lin Chih-ping blew the throw to the shortstop covering the bag, allowing the runner from third to give the Lions a 3-1 lead.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The Lions run virtually ended all hope for a Bears rally against the stingy pitching of starter Kenny Rayborn. He tossed one-run ball against his former team through the seventh before his bullpen took over and retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth to preserve the victory.
Jose Castillo’s sacrifice fly scored Huang Kang-lin from third after Huang led off the game with a double and stole third.
The Lions doubled their lead in the next inning thanks to a two-out single by Kao Chih-kang that knocked in the runner from third.
Chen Chin-fong’s solo blast off Rayborn, his 23rd of the season, made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second.
That turned out to be the lone run for the hosts, who stranded a total of six runners in the game.
Chang took a tough loss, lasting two-and-a-third innings with two runs (one earned) on five hits and a pair of walks to even his record at 9-9 for the year.
■BULLS 14, ELEPHANTS 6
The Sinon Bulls teed off against Brother Elephants pitchers, piling up 20 hits in a 14-6 win at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday.
Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan became the seventh man in league history to hit for the cycle as he drove in two runs for his team.
Six other Bulls batters had multi-hit games, with four belting three hits each in the slugfest.
Sinon starter Yu Wen-pin was credited with the easy win for six innings of work, allowing four runs on a half-dozen hits to beat his counterpart, Mike Smith, who suffered his fifth defeat of the season.
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
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