Hsu Yu-wei pitched seven innings of one-run ball and Jiang Chih-tsong went 3-for-4 effort to lead the La New Bears past the President Lions in a 3-1 win in Sinjhuang on Thursday night.
The emerging fourth-year lefty who spent a good part of last season rehabbing a shoulder injury has developed into a formidable force in the La New rotation to make up for the absence of Wu Si-yo, who left the team after two great seasons with the Bears to play in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League.
Hsu has won eight in a row with a repertoire of pitches -- including a blazing fastball of more than 140kph and a nasty slider that breaks hard and late -- to improve his record to 9-2 for the season.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"The key to his success this year is that pin-point control; he is also around the plate, which makes the hitters work extra hard," a very pleased La New manager Hong Yi-chung said after the game.
Offensively for the defending champs, Jiang took the lead with a three-hit game against Lions staff ace Pete Munro, who had won seven straight heading into the game after tossing 22 scoreless innings over a three-game stretch.
The showdown between the top two clubs in the league saw the Bears drawing first blood against Munro in the top of the second when Lin Jin-ping lined a pitch to the left-center gap for a two-run double that put the Bears ahead 2-0.
They would tack on another run an inning later with Jiang's timely single that scored the runner from second with two outs to make it 3-0.
That was more than plenty of run support for Hsu as he retired the first 14 Lions batters he faced before giving up a single in the fifth to lose the no-hitter bid. He would pitch two-hit ball through the seventh before allowing a pair of singles in the eighth. Hsu was relieved by his bullpen, which kept the damage to only one run en route to a 3-1 victory.
Pocketing the tough loss for the Lions despite turning in another quality start was Munro, who made a couple of mistakes early in the game and paid dearly for them as his offense simply could not come up with its usual run production to bail out the US right-hander.
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