The top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys celebrated clinching the first-half title on Friday night with a narrow 4-3 triumph over the Chinatrust Brothers last night at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
The win marked the Primates’ 10th straight home win against the Brothers, an impressive streak that dates back to September last year when the Brothers were known as the Brother Elephants prior to being acquired by Chinatrust Bank.
The Brothers wasted little time against Monkey starter Roydrick Merritt, jumping to a quick 1-0 lead in the opening frame when Chang Cheng-wei led off with a single, took third two batters later and scored on a throwing error by Lamigo catcher Liu Shih-hao.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The 1-0 lead lasted less than an inning as the home Monkeys returned the favor by plating two off Brothers starter Chen Hung-wen on a sacrifice fly by Lin Chih-ping and an RBI single by Yu The-lung in the bottom of the same inning to grab a 2-1 advantage.
After a quick top half of the second inning, the Monkeys offense hit two more runs on the strength of a pair of doubles and a single off Chen that made it 4-1, a score that remained through the fifth before the visitors scored their second run off Merritt on Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s RBI double.
Chinatrust tacked on one more run in the eighth to make it 4-3 and threatened to tie the game up in the top of the eighth with runners at the corners and two outs, but reliever Chen Yu-hsun’s inning-ending strikeout stranded the players on base.
That set up a shaky ninth for the Monkeys in which closer Miguel Mejia allowed runners to reach first and second with one out before retiring the next two batters to preserve the win for Merritt.
Chen Yu-hsun was named Most Valuable Player despite facing only one batter because his inning-ending strikeout proved invaluable to the Monkeys’ victory.
Taking the loss was Chen Hung-wen, who fell to 3-4 for the season, allowing four runs on six hits in seven innings.
LIONS 5, RHINOS 1
The Uni-President Lions bounced back from a 5-0 shutout loss to the EDA Rhinos on Friday evening with a convincing win at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to even the weekend series at one win apiece.
Huang En-tzi’s two-run double off Rhinos starter Huang Sheng-hsiung was the difference as the Lions took the lead for good with a three-run sixth that broke a 1-1 deadlock wide open.
Shairon Martis was credited with the win for holding the Rhinos to a lone run on four hits over seven innings to beat his counterpart Huang Sheng-hsiung.
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