The Brother Elephants climbed to No. 3 in the standings with a convincing 8-0 shutout win over the dmedia T-Rex at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday to extend their winning streak to three.
Japanese standout Kobayashi Ryokan won his fourth straight after starting off the season with an 0-2 mark by five-hitting the T-Rex over six solid innings before the Elephants bullpen took over with three innings of hitless relief to keep the shutout intact.
Providing the bulk of the run support for Kobayashi was the heart of an Elephants lineup consisting of Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan, Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min and Chen Guan-ren that batted a combined 4-for-10 with five RBIs that did a number on the dmedia pitching staff.
Saturday night’s contest began with the Elephants jumping to a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when the “Golden Warrior” knocked home the runner from second with his 12th double of the season off dmedia starter Chen Jien-fu.
After a scoreless second, the Elephants struck again in the third with two more runs on Chia Chia’s clutch double with two outs that sent home both runners to lead it 3-0.
Wang Sheng-wei’s sacrifice-fly with men at the corners made it 4-0 in favor of the Elephants in the fourth before they erupted for four more runs in the fifth, highlighted by Chen Hua-shan’s two-run homer off Leovildo Pargas to make it 8-0.
That was enough for the Elephants as Kobayashi turned the game to Wang Jing-li after the fifth with a pitching count of 103.
And Wang Jing-li and the rest of the Elephants bullpen delivered with three combined innings of scoreless relief to preserve the shutout victory for their Japanese team-mate.
Taking the loss for the T-Rex was Chen who lasted only two and two thirds innings with three allowed runs on four hits and no help whatsoever from his hitters as he dropped to a 2-6 record for the year.
BULLS 10, BEARS 4
Avenging a tough loss with an identical score from the night before were the Sinon Bulls who topped the La New Bears 10-4 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Saturday evening to split the two-game series.
Yu Wen-pin continued his dominance over the opposing hitters, despite giving up a two-run homer to the Bears’ Lin Chih-sheng to fall behind 0-2 in the top of the second, by allowing only one more run over the next frames to pick up his fifth “W” of the year.
Offensively for the home Bulls, Cheng Da-hong’s two-run single capped a three-run fourth that put his club ahead 6-2, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way en route to the win.
The outfielder ended up going 2-for-5 with three RBIs.
Bears starter Chang Chih-jia allowed six runs on five hits in three and two thirds innings.
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