Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen pitched seven strong innings of two-run ball and Chen Lien-hong homered on a three-hit outing as the Uni-President Lions doubled up on the Sinon Bulls 6-3 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Saturday night.
Also starring for the Lions were Pan Wu-hsuing and Jose Castillo who rang up four hits and three doubles respectively to account for the bulk of their team’s offense as the Lions won their fourth straight.
“Everything is just clicking for us right now, and we can only hope to ride it for as long as we can,” Chen said after the game.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The veteran slugger for the Lions has hit safely in the last four games, with five RBIs on six hits.
Back-to-back doubles by Pan Wu-hsiung and Castillo in the bottom of the third scored the first run of the game for the home Cats before Chen went deep with a two-run shot off Sinon starter Lin Ying-jeh to take a 3-0 lead after three innings.
The Bulls answered with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth — Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan’s two-run blast off Du Du for his 11th of the season — but the one-run deficit was as close as they got. The Lions struck for three insurance runs over the sixth and seventh to lead 6-2 en route to victory.
DuDu won his first game in nearly two months, allowing just five hits over seven frames, fanning five with no walks to improve to 8-5 for the year.
Bulls pitcher Lin — responsible for four runs — dropped to a dismal 3-6 for the year.
BEARS 12, ELEPHANTS 4
The previously red-hot Brother Elephants proved no match for hosts the La New Bears as they succumbed in Kaohsiung on Saturday to put an end to their season-high six-game winning streak.
The showdown between the top two squads in the league was anything but close, with the Bears roughing up starter Tsao Chin-hui in a five-run third that showed the former major leaguer what the top offense in the league was capable of.
La New duplicated their success in the fifth, this time against Tsao and Brother reliever Yeh Yong-jeh, to blow the game wide open at 10-1.
With his offense spotting him a commanding nine-run lead through the sixth, Bears starter Chang Chih-jia gladly stepped down, allowing his bullpen to serve up three meaningless runs over the final three innings.
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