The EDA Rhinos made it two shutouts in a row by blanking the Chinatrust Brother Elephants 4-0 at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung last night to take the weekend set by a 2-1 margin.
Fresh off a 5-0 shutout win over the Elephants in the night game of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader, the Rhinos picked up where they left off by plating a pair of runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-0 lead, thanks to Hu Chin-lung’s two-run homer off Elephants starter Lin Yu-ching.
It was the former Los Angeles Dodgers player’s first long ball of the season, despite his solid .317 average heading into the contest.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth, the hosts struck again with Kao Hsiao-yi bouncing a chopper through the left side of the Elephants infield to score a runner from second, before Lin Kuen-sheng came up big on a two-out single which not only drove in his team’s fourth run of the game, but also chased Lin Yu-ching.
The 4-0 cushion was ample for the Rhinos pitching as starter Hsiao Yi-chieh kept the Chinatrust hitters at bay, despite allowing a runner to reach safety in three of the five innings he pitched before handing a 2-0 lead to his bullpen at the start of the sixth inning.
An inability to produce any runs off Hsiao with six hits off the right-hander on the part of the Elephants hitters proved costly as his successors, Lai Hung-cheng and Lin Yen-fong, combined for three innings of one-hit relief, before closer Esmerling Vasquez retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth to keep the shutout intact.
Picking up the victory was Hsiao, who improved to 3-2 for the season, while the loss was charged to Lin Yu-ching, who allowed all four of the Rhinos runs on seven hits over 6-2/3 frames of work to fall to 2-4 this season.
MONKEYS 16, LIONS 8
Scoring early and often, the league-leading Lamigo Monkeys topped the Uni-President Lions 16-8 at home at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night to avoid being swept by the Cats.
The victims of a pair of tough losses in front of their home crowd, the normally potent Primates, who had been held to only three runs in their previous two games, were quick to strike as they jumped to a 6-2 lead after three innings of play en route to the blowout win.
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