The Chinatrust Whales bounced back nicely from a pair of losses earlier last week with impressive 7-4 win over the Sinon Bulls in Douliou on Saturday to reclaim the lead in the standings.
In a game in which they never trailed, the Whales drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the first on an RBI-double by Dominican slugger Carlos Villalobos off Sinon starter Yang Jien-fu before plating four more in the sixth to break the game wide open 5-0.
Back-to-back singles from Kang Tseh-wei and Abraham Nunez of the Dominican Republic set the stage for Villalobos' second double of the night, this one with two RBIs before Lin Guan-chung and Wang Hsin-min followed with consecutive run-scoring singles with two outs to net the Whales their third and fourth runs in the sixth.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
That was more than ample for Whales starter Lin Min-jing, who tossed six shutout innings of two-hit ball before finally yielding to a Bulls hitter in the seventh, with two runs on three hits.
After the Whales got both runs back with two of their own in the bottom of the seventh, rookie reliever Huang Hong-ren would surrender a pair of runs in the eighth to make it 7-4.
That was as close as the Bulls would get as Chu Wei-ming needed only three pitches to record the final two outs of the inning without further damage, before closer Du Chang-wei finished off the ninth with relative ease to preserve the win for Lin with his second save of the year.
Leading the Whales attack was a top of the order consisting of Wang Yi-min. Kang, Nunez and Villalobos, who combined for an incredible 9-for-14 with five RBIs.
As for the Bulls, what had been a close 0-1 game through the fifth for starter Yang suddenly turned sour in the sixth, as he was dealt his first defeat of the season.
BEARS 11, T-REX 6
Ten late-game runs by the La New offense turned a 1-3 deficit into an easy 11-6 win over the dmedia T-Rex at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Saturday.
Two-run singles by Huang "Easy" Long-yi and Jiang Chih-tsong led a seven-run seventh for the Bears who sent a dozen men to the plate against a struggling T-Rex bullpen that squandered yet another late-inning lead.
Leading 8-3, the Bears would tack on three more insurance runs over the final two frames to make it 11-3, before dmedia rang up three meaningless runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Picking up his second straight win in as many starts was Bears starter Mike Johnson.
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