Behind seven quality innings of one-run ball by Nee Fu-deh, the Chinatrust Whales tamed the previously red-hot President Lions in a 6-2 road win to salvage a 1-1 series-split at the Tainan City Baseball Stadium on Saturday evening.
The soft-spoken left-hander who entered the game with a 0-3 mark due to a lack of run-support from his offense finally got the help necessary in a six-hit gem to record his first victory of the season.
“It’s one of those things you just can’t worry about a whole lot; as long as I get my pitches over the plate, good things will start to happen sooner or later,” Nee said after the game in learning of his game-MVP selection.
The game did not start off as well for Nee as he would have liked with the Lions, Liu Fu-hao jumping all over a slider from him for a solo home run in the bottom of the first to give the home Lions a quick 1-0 lead.
That turned out to be the lone run that the Lions would score off Nee as he promptly regrouped and pitched shutout ball through the seventh before being relieved by his bullpen.
Backing up Nee was an offense that scored three in the top of the third on the strength of an RBI-single by Carlos Villalobos and a two-run liner to left by Tseng Jia-shien with the bases loaded, before tacking on three more runs over the sixth and seventh to open a sizable 6-1 lead.
The Lions would score one final run in the eighth off Whales reliever Du Chang-wei to make the final score somewhat respectable without posing any serious threats to the outcome of the game.
Suffering his first loss was Lions starter Gregory Wiltshire of Australia as he remained winless at 0-1 in the six starts with the Lions thus far. He allowed four runs (only one earned) on six hits over five-and-one-third innings of work.
Elephants 8, T-Rex 5
Miscues on the part of the dmedia T-Rex defense proved costly as they dropped an 8-5 decision to the Brother Elephants at the Taipei City Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday.
Four errors charged against the dmedia defense, which led to four unearned runs for the Elephants on the night was the difference in an otherwise closely fought battle between the two clubs.
In a game where the hitters had the upper hand, it was the Elephants who scored three unearned runs in the top of the second off T-Rex starter Chen Jien-fu when Wang Jin-yong and Wang Cheng-wei came up with an RBI-double and a two-run triple respectively following an error by Chen on a would-be inning-ending play to enjoy a 3-0 lead.
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