The Brother Elephants bounced back from a tough loss to the Uni-President Lions in a 5-2 rain-delayed win at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series by a 2-1 margin.
Kuo Chien-yu had a big day at the office, scoring three RBIs to lead the men in the golden uniforms as they roughed up the Lions with five quick runs over the first two innings.
The Brother Elephants then held the Cats off with a solid bullpen despite giving up a two-run homer to Kuo Jung-yo to preserve the win.
Starter Lin Yu-ching allowed at least one runner to reach a base in all but one of the five innings he pitched.
However, Lin managed to deny the Lions from scoring any runs with some timely strikeouts and help from his defense to pick up his fifth win of the year.
As if losing the game were not enough for the Lions, they also lost infielder Chen Yung-chi to a shoulder injury when he collided with an Elephant runner while fielding a grounder in the bottom of the second.
RHINOS 8, MONKEYS 2
The EDA Rhinos broke into the win column in the second half with an 8-2 triumph over the Lamigo Monkeys in the weekend series finale at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to avoid being swept by the home hosts.
Andy Sisco tossed two-run ball on six hits over seven effective frames to lead the first-half champions, who had dropped two straight to the Primates to open the second half on a down note.
The American southpaw had not won in a month after suffering a loss and two no-decisions in his three previous starts despite keeping his league-leading earned run average (ERA) to less than 2.3 during the same period.
Leading the way at the plate for the victors was second-year shortstop Chen Kai-luen, who batted a career-high four-for-four with five RBIs to account for more than half of his team’s total runs.
The Rhinos then pounded out 15 hits off the Monkeys’ pitching to vent some of their frustration over their two earlier losses.
Kao Guo-hui’s two-run blast off Monkeys starter Brian Burres gave the visitors a quick 2-0 lead in the opening frame before they padded their advantage with another run in the fourth on a pair of doubles.
The Monkeys answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth on Yu The-long’s sacrifice fly, only to see Burres gave it right back with interest as the Rhinos took advantage of an error by the Monkeys’ defense to plate three unearned runs in the inning.
That was more than enough for Sisco to seal the deal as he cruised through the seventh to pick up win No. 7 of the season.
Arminia Bielefeld on Tuesday pulled off a major upset in the DFB-Pokal by defeating defending champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 in their semi-final. The third-division team came from behind after Jonathan Tah gave the visitors a 17th-minute lead. Marius Worl replied three minutes later and Maximilian Groser scored Bielefeld’s second goal just before the break. The home team looked more likely to add to that tally as the Leverkusen players looked jaded. “I’m just proud of this team,” Bielefeld coach Mitch Kniat said as most of the fans the small stadium sang around him. “No one will sleep in the city tonight.” Patrik Schick went
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