The Lamigo Monkeys rode the red-hot bat of slugger Lin Chih-sheng, who homered for the fourth time in the past two days to baffle the Uni-President Lions 9-7 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to sweep the three-game set on the road.
“It was a great way to end the weekend,” Lin said, referring to his ninth-inning blast which came the day after his first career three-homer game the night before.
He is now four homers shy of the EDA Rhinos’ Kao Kuo-hui, whose 30 round-trippers are second to none in the league.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Neither starting pitcher managed to hold the opposing hitters in the early going, with Wang Yi-cheng of the Monkeys and the Lions’ Liao Wen-yang allowing five runs each through the fifth, before the Primates claimed their third lead of the game at 4-3 in the sixth when Wang Po-jung singled off Liao and scored two batters later on Lin Chih-ping’s liner.
The opportunistic Lamigo offense jumped all over the Lions’ pitching in the seventh with Chen Guan-ren’s solo shot leading the way, before Wang capped off the night with a three-run triple that gave the visitors a 8-3 lead.
Trailing by five at that point, the Cats got a pair of runs back in the seventh and the ninth to make it a two-run game and actually had the bases loaded in the ninth with one out before Monkeys closer Lin Po-yo fanned two in a row to strand three in a close finish.
BROTHERS 4, RHINOS 0
The Chinatrust Brothers made it two wins in a row by blanking the EDA Rhinos in a 4-0 shutout at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to take the weekend series.
Lin Wei-chu’s pinch-hit double off Rhinos starter Ni Fu-te with the runner on second broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the seventh, before Huang Shih-hao followed with an RBI single that scored Lin to make it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
That set up back-to-back solo blasts from Chang Chih-hao and Chiang Chih-hsien off reliever Shen Yu-chieh an inning later as the Brothers doubled their lead to conclude the scoring.
Chinatrust starter Bryan Woodall picked up win No. 3 since joining the team a month ago with eight brilliant innings of four-hit ball, before ace closer Chen Hung-wen pitched a scoreless ninth to keep the shutout intact.
“We didn’t do anything different today, it was just a great team win all around,” Woodall said after being named Most Valuable Player.
Falling victim to an anemic offense was Ni, who took a three-hit shutout one out into the seventh before succumbing to the Chinatrust hitters in a game he could have won on another night.
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