Lin Cuen-sheng’s solo blast off Orlando Roman in the bottom of the seventh broke a 2-all tie as the Sinon Bulls held on to top the Brother Elephants 4-3 in a thrilling game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
It was the first home run for the budding rookie catcher in what many expect to be a promising career, providing a huge morale boost for the last-placed Bulls (12-33-2) as they look to salvage a disappointing first half of the season.
Trailing 2-0 after two innings of play, the Elephants held the Sinon offense scoreless for the next four innings to keep it a close game as Roman retired all but one Sinon batter over the span. The Elephants hitters finally awoke as they plated a pair in the top of the seventh, courtesy of an RBI ground out by Chang Cheng-hao and a two-out single by Chen Jiang-ho that drove in the tying run to make it 2-2.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
That was as close as they got as the Bulls returned the favor in the bottom of the inning with Lin’s tiebreaking solo shot, before they added an insurance run in a hitless eighth as Cheng Da-hong drew a leadoff walk off Elephants reliever Kuo Jien-yu, stole second and then reached third on a ground out, before finally scoring on a wild pitch by Kuo to make it 4-2.
Cheng’s run proved crucial as the Elephants rallied for a run in the top of the ninth and loaded the bases against Shen Yu-jeh, before the lefty closer induced a lazy fly to left to set up Cheng’s game-ending catch in foul territory for the win.
“This was a big win for us because we haven’t been able to win the close ones very often this year,” Sinon skipper Liu Rong-hua said after the game.
His Bulls had been 3-12 in games that were decided by two runs or fewer prior to last night’s contest.
Reliever Tsai Ming-jin was credited with his second win of the year for his two innings of one-run relief, while the loss was charged to Roman, who allowed three runs on six hits over seven solid innings in a quality start, only to drop to a 6-3 mark for the season.
LIONS 2, MONKEYS 0
Dan Reichert tossed eight solid innings of shutout ball to lead the Uni-President Lions past the Lamigo Monkeys at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium last night, upping the top-ranked Lions’ lead over the Monkeys to a season-high three games.
The highly anticipated pitchers’ duel between Reichert and his counterpart Steve Hammond lived up to its billing with neither offense able to produce any runs through the fourth until a fielding error by Monkeys outfielder Chung Cheng-yo led to a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth that ended up making all the difference.
Down by two runs, the Monkeys attempted a comeback in the final two frames as Chung tried to redeem himself with a two-out double off Reichert in the eighth and Tsai Jien-wei doing the same against Lions closer Lin Yueh-ping in the ninth.
Neither Chung nor Tsai managed to cross the plate as the Monkeys came up empty on both occasions on a night where the Monkeys batted a futile 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position in a losing effort.
Reichert picked up the win, improving to 7-1 for the season.
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