Tsai Tsung-yo drove in a career-high four runs on a 2-for-3 night to lift the La New Bears past the Uni-President Lions 6-4 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night, starting the week with a big win for the home Bears.
The win not only ended a four-game winning streak for the red-hot Lions, who had won nine of their last 10 heading into Wednesday’s contest, but also extended the Bears’ winning run to four in a row. The Bears cut the league-leading Lions’ lead in the standings to 1.5 games with seven games remaining in the first half of the season.
Kao Guo-ching’s solo homer leading off the top of the second gave the Cats an early 1-0 lead, only to see the Bears answer with four runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning, highlighted by a two-run single with the bases loaded by Tsai.
The Bears widened their lead by two in the third with another two-run single by the third-year infielder to make the score 6-1, which lasted all the way to the top of the ninth before the Lions made things interesting by loading up the bases with no outs against Bears reliever Geng Bo-hsuen.
That prompted skipper Hong Yi-chung to send in ace closer Jermaine Van Buren, who gave up three runs on back-to-back singles to Jose Castillo and Kao that made it 6-4 before retiring the next three hitters to preserve the win.
Picking up the win was Bears starter Chang Chih-jia, who pitched his side into and out of trouble throughout the 5-2/3 innings he worked to allow only a run on eight hits and a pair of walks.
Taking the loss was Lions starter Pan Jung-rong, who lasted just 2-2/3 innings with six allowed runs on eight hits in his first loss of the year.
ELEPHANTS 4, BULLS 0
Behind the stellar pitching of Tsao Chin-hui, the Brother Elephants blanked the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Tuesday evening to nip a four-game losing skid.
The former major leaguer tossed six shutout innings of five-hit ball in a rare midweek appearance that drew more than 5,000 spectators to the ballpark.
They were rewarded by seeing their hero bounce back nicely from a tough loss to the Bears last Saturday, when he allowed two runs on five hits in just two innings.
Offensively for the victorious Elephants, eight of the nine starters had a hit in the game, with Wang Jin-yong and Liu Geng-hsin leading the pack with an RBI apiece off game-loser Lin Keh-chien.
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