The Brothers Baseball Club yesterday leveled the CPBL Taiwan Series at one win each after a see-saw battle, scoring two late runs to edge the Lamigo Monkeys 6-5 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
The lead changed hands several times early on due to both teams starting offensively, but the Brothers eventually prevailed with the victory when closer Chen “Little Flying Knife” Hung-wen shut the door to hold the Monkeys scoreless in the final two frames of a tight contest.
Both teams again chose imported talent to start the game, with former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Mike McClendon starting for the Brothers and former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Cesar Valdez for the Monkeys.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The Brothers rattled Valdez right away by jumping to a quick three-run lead in the first inning, with the big damage inflicted by former Boston Red Sox prospect Chiang Chih-hsien’s two-run homer.
In the third inning, the Brothers added another when Chou “The Chairman” Ssu-chi ripped a double to the wall to drive in another run to extend their lead to 4-0.
The Monkeys got on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the inning on Lamigo RBI-leader Lin “Big Brother” Chih-sheng’s line drive to get a runner on third home.
One batter later, the Monkeys looked poised to pick up more points with the bases loaded and only one out.
However, McClendon extricated himself from the dangerous situation by getting Chen “My Show” Chun-shou to fly out and Wang “The King” Po-jung to hit a groundout.
As they had in the series opener on Saturday, the Monkeys, trailing 4-1, rallied in the fourth inning.
After the Lamigo batters loaded the bases against McClendon on three hits, outfielder Yang Yao-hsun drove in two runs with a single and another runner made it home on a wild pitch to tie up the game at 4-4.
Swinging a hot bat, Lin slammed a double to bring home the Monkeys’ go-ahead run, ending the inning at 5-4 and chasing out McClendon, who was replaced by Tu Chia-ming.
The scoreboard remained static until the seventh frame, when Brothers outfielder Chang “The Flower” Cheng-wei managed an RBI single to tie the game again at 5-5.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Brothers once again managed to get ahead. With runners at the corners, Hsu “Golden Bomber” Chi-hung hit a grounder that netted the Monkeys a double play, but the runner on third made it home to make it 6-5.
The Monkeys then had a potential rally in the making in the bottom half of the inning, when they loaded the bases against the fifth Brothers pitcher, Chen Hung-wen.
However, the Monkeys were unable to get any more traction against Chen Hung-wen, as pinch-hitter Chen “Little Airplane” Kuang-jen hit into a double play and Yu Te-lung hit a fly ball for the third out.
In the ninth, the Brothers closer let a runner get as far as second base, but did his job as closer and managed to get the final two batters out in order to seal the victory.
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