Makeup week continued with the dmedia T-Rex blanking the Chinatrust Whales 2-0 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium and the Brother Elephants downing the La New Bears 7-3 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Friday night in an effort to get all the first-half games in.
Nathan Bland made the most of his first start in Taiwan by tossing 6-2/3 innings of shutout ball before the dmedia bullpen took over with 2-1/3 innings of hitless relief to keep the shutout intact for the American lefty.
Providing the support with his big bat for the T-Rex was Napoleon Calzado of the Dominican Republics who drove in both of his team’s runs in the game by going 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly.
Deng Shih-yang’s standup double off Whales starter Nee Fu-deh got things moving in the right direction for the T-Rex as they opened the game with a first-inning run on Calzado’s sacrifice fly to claim a 1-0 lead before doubling it two innings later, this time on an RBI double by Calzado.
Spotted a 2-0 lead, Bland showed no signs of letting up after cruising through the sixth with minimum trouble before turning the game to fellow reliever two outs into the seventh in the eventual win.
Offensively for the marine creatures, none of the half-dozen hits they managed off the dmedia pitchers came with runners in scoring position, leaving them empty-handed on the night.
Suffering the tough loss despite pitching a sound two-run gem was Nee who allowed seven hits and struck out eight to drop his fourth game of the season.
ELEPHANTS 7, BEARS 3
Liao Yu-cheng improved to 7-1 for the year by pitching his second complete-game of the year to lead the Brother Elephants past the La New Bears 7-3 in Kaohsiung on Friday evening.
The fourth-year righty with an underhand delivery who has quietly taken over the distinction as the Elephants staff ace shook off a shaky first in which he surrendered a run on a pair of singles and a well-executed double-steal by the Bears and pitched well the rest of the way en route to his seventh victory of the year.
He also received plenty of run-support from his offense which put up seven early runs through the fourth, highlighted by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s two-run double in the top of the third on a 3-RBI night to put the game away long before the final out.
With the three hits in the game, Peng surpassed the 700-hit plateau as the eighth active player in the league to accomplish the feat.
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