Fernandez Echavarria Pedro Arsenio on Saturday gave up just one run in eight innings as the Rakuten Monkeys beat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 in Tainan to tie up the best-of-five CPBL playoff series at one game apiece.
Although Saturday’s game at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium was technically the first in the series, the Lions earned a one-game advantage after clinching the first-half season title.
In the nine CPBL playoff rounds held since 1998, the team winning Game 1 of the best-of-five series has advanced to the Taiwan Series.
Photo courtesy of the Rakuten Monkeys via CNA
This year’s winners are to face the Wei Chuan Dragons in the best-of-seven Taiwan series. The dragons earned an automatic berth by winning the second-half season title and holding the best full-season record.
Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu praised his players for showing toughness in the face of the Lions’ automatic 1-0 lead, crediting starting pitcher Arsenio for his confidence on the mound.
“He displayed great dominance after taking a 10-day break. He attacked the strike zone aggressively and made the batters swing and strike several times. So I decided to let him continue pitching even after the eighth inning,” Tseng said.
Arsenio yielded only two runs on six hits over his eight-inning start, with a solo shot by Su Chih-chieh in the bottom of the fourth the only earned run.
The right-handed pitcher was pulled in the bottom of the ninth without retiring a batter after he walked Su and yielded a single to Chen Yung-chi.
The 29-year-old Dominican said he regretted not continuing to attack the strike zone as he did in the first eight innings, but praised the depth of the Monkeys’ bullpen for weathering the final inning.
The Lions suffered a blow in the fourth inning when designated hitter Lin An-ko was carried off the field after fouling a ball off the outside of his left knee.
In a post-game interview, Lions manager Lin Yue-ping said that the injury was likely to rule Lin out for the rest of the series, meaning a bigger role for Chiu Chih-cheng.
For last night’s game in Taoyuan, 11,000 tickets had been sold as of Saturday, making it the fifth CPBL challenger game with more than 10,000 spectators.
“Now we’ve evened the series, I hope our fans will pack the stadium and cheer for us,” Tseng said.
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