Kobayashi Ryokan tossed six innings of three-run ball and Chen Rei-cheng went a perfect 4-for-4 with a pair of RBIs as the Brother Elephants doubled up on the Uni-President Lions 6-3 in Tainan on Friday night for their second win of the week.
Capitalizing on a shaky start by Lions starter Lin Cheng-fong, the visitors jumped to a quick 4-0 lead in the opening frame on the strength of two singles, a double and a rare two-run triple by Chen.
Even though the home Cats struck back with a run each in the first and second to halve the lead to 4-2, the Elephants returned the favor with a run in the fourth and fifth, highlighted by Wang Jin-yong’s run-scoring double in the fifth, to maintain a four-run cushion.
The Lions managed to plate their third run of the night in the bottom of the fifth when Jose Castillo hit a sacrifice-fly off Kobayashi to score the runner from third that extended the Venezuelan slugger’s recent RBI-streak to three in a row. But that was as close as they got against the stingy Elephants pitching as Kobayashi finished the inning without further damage and cruised through the sixth before the Brother bullpen took over with three hitless innings of solid relief to preserve the fifth win of the season for Kobayashi.
As for the Lions, the four-run hole that Lin dug early in the game proved costly as they dropped the second game in three chances in a not-so-auspicious start for the second half.
Bears 7, Bulls 3
The La New Bears bounced back nicely from a blowout loss to the Elephants on Thursday with a 7-3 win over the Sinon Bulls at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday evening to pick their first win of the second half.
Chen Chin-fong led an attack that ripped 14 hits off the Sinon pitching by going 3-for-4 with an RBI to earn the game-MVP honor.
La New sent nine men to the plate to face Bulls starter Shoda Itsuki in what ended up being a five-run first. The Bears never looked back, as the 5-0 lead was more than ample for starter Chang Chih-jia, who recovered from a wild second that saw him surrender three runs by holding his ground over the next four frames to win his seventh game of the year.
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