Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen pitched seven innings of one-run ball and Liu Fu-hao homered for the 10th time this year as the Uni--President Lions edged past the Brother Elephants in a 2-1 thriller at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
It was a big win for the defending champions, not only in the sense that they closed out the final home game of an otherwise disappointing season on a high note after failing to earn a post-season berth for the first time in five years, but also because it was the 100th career victory for Du Du, who became the fastest player to reach the century mark in only his eighth season (207 games).
“I am glad that it [picking up his 100th career win] is finally out of the way because I would not want to wait until next year,” Du Du said after the game.
As for Liu, the solo blast that he launched over the left-field wall in the bottom of the fifth for his 10th homer of the year proved to be the difference in the game and it gave the speedy outfielder double-digit homers for the second straight season.
The showdown between Du Du and Elephants starter Huang Jia-ming lived up to the hype as neither offense managed to break through for a score through to the third inning, with Pan and Huang allowing only three hits between them, but the Lions’ clutch hitting finally got to Huang in the fourth as Chen Lien-hong and Kao Chih-kang came through with a double and a single with two outs respectively to give their team a 1-0 lead.
After Liu’s two-out homer in the fifth made it 2-0, the visiting Elephants responded in the seventh by scoring their first run of the game off Du Du on Wang Sheng-wei’s RBI triple.
That was as close as they got as Du Du calmly struck out the next batter to strand the tying run on third, before his bullpen took over with a scoreless eighth and ninth to preserve the win.
Bulls 6, Bears 3
The Sinon Bulls doubled up on the La New Bears at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium yesterday.
Starter Lin Ying-jeh improved to 9-7 for the year with the win, allowing no runs on four hits over five frames.
He received plenty of run support with an offense that connected for a pair of runs in the fifth inning, the sixth and the seventh to spot him a 6-0 lead.
Even though the Bears would fight back and score three in the bottom of the ninth off Bulls reliever Yu Wen-bin, denying the Bulls the shutout win, the outcome of the game was never in doubt when Yu buckled down to close out the game without further damage.
Today’s game sees the Sinon Bulls take on the Brother Elephants in Taoyuan at 6:35pm.
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