Tseng Jau-hao pitched seven solid innings of one-run ball and Kao Jung-chiang went 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Chinatrust Whales past the La New Bears in a 4-3 road win at Kaohsiung on Saturday evening.
The victory not only snapped the Whales' losing streak at three straight, but also gave them sole possession of the second-place spot in the standings, two games behind the league-leading Macoto Cobras.
Outstanding pitching by both starters, Tseng for the Whales and Hsu Wen-hsiung for the Bears, silenced the opposing bats for four scoreless innings until Chen Fong-min got a hold of a belt-high offering from Tseng and crushed it over the leftfield wall for a solo homer and a 1-0 Bears lead.
After six futile innings during which the Whales only managed two singles (one being an infield single) off Hsu, the tide finally turned in their favor in the top of the seventh when Huang Kwei-yu delivered a clutch RBI single with a man on second and two outs to tie the game at 1-1.
The Whales tacked on three more runs in the eighth with run-scoring singles by Kao and Shih Jin-sho, both with two outs, to make it 4-1.
Chen Fong-min's fly to right-center that was dropped by the Whales rightfielder scored both runners to bring the Bears to within a run of their opponents, but that was as close as they would get as closer Miguel Saladin promptly retired Huang Long-yi with the tying run on second to secure the win.
Improving to 3-1 for the year with the win was Tseng, who allowed a run on five hits over seven frames. The Whales staff ace continued his dominance over the Bears by beating them for the third straight time this year.
Picking up the loss was Hsu who allowed two runs on five hits in 7-1/3 spectacular innings, but fell victim to a lack of run support as the struggling Bears dropped their third in a row.
Bulls 13, Lions 1
Scoring early and often, the Sinon Bulls erupted for 13 runs on 19 hits against the President Lions in a 13-1 blowout at Tainan on Saturday which extended the Bulls' winning streak to three.
The Bulls greeted Lions starter Jeriome Robertson and a hostile Tainan crowd of 3,000-plus with a three-run first, courtesy of Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's three-run homer. He would go on and rip through the Lions pitching with four more hits and a pair of RBIs on a 5-for-6 night with five RBIs to claim the game MVP honor.
After a scoreless second, the Bulls collected another run off Robertson that chased the American lefty for good on the Prince's run-scoring double that sent the runner all the way home from first.
In came a wild Chang Chih-chiang who took over for Robertson and promptly retired five of the next six batters he faced before running into a world of trouble in the fifth and sixth where the Bulls struck for five more runs to blow the game wide open.
They then added two more meaningless runs in the seventh and ninth, highlighted by Cheng Jau-han's two-run double that shot its way right through the right-center gap to easily score both runners.
Cheng also had three hits to go along with the pair of RBIs that matched him with fellow designated hitter Chen Chih-wei's 3-or-4 hitting with three RBIs on the night.
Earning his league-best fifth win of the season was Sinon starter Iba Tomokazu, who allowed the lone Lions run in the fourth on a solo blast by Kuo Dai-chi to break up the shutout bid for the Japanese righty.
Suffering the lopsided loss was Robertson who remained winless at 0-4 with a 6.67 earned run average (ERA).
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