Welcome back to the CPBL round-up written by me, Thomas Jellis. The third full week was full of high scoring games and more dramatic finishes so let’s take a look back.

Rakuten Monkeys v Fubon Guardians – Tues and Wed

These games were the two lowest scoring of the week as the Monkeys traveled to Xinzhuang for the first time this season. On Tuesday Justin Nicolino made his debut and it was one to remember as went scoreless through 8 solid innings. Bryan Woodall went scoreless through 5 for Fubon but took the loss, conceding 2 in the 6th in an eventual 3-0 defeat. Guardians made just 2 hits all evening. Final score: Monkeys 3 Guardians 0.

Ryan Carpenter got his first win as a Monkey on Wednesday in a 5-3 victory. The away side went 5-0 up and Carpenter only conceded in the 7th when he gave up 2 unearned runs. Fubon scored again in the 8th but the visitors held on comfortably. Final score: Monkeys 5 Guardians 3.

CTBC Brothers v Uni Lions – Wed and Thurs

Both sides came into this off the back of a series win at the weekend and gave up a couple of great games last midweek.

Brothers went 3-0 going into the bottom of 4th but the Lions had and gone ahead going into the 7th. 4-3 up and with the pitch count around 100 the Lions left starter Donn Roach in the game. Brothers tied it off a home run, Roach got two outs and then gave up a single. As Roach tired against Chang Chih Hao approaching 120 pitches Chang put one the left field wall and Brothers lead 6 4. This was turned into 9 4 in the following inning. Uni Lions rallied back and had 2 on with 1 on, trailing 9 7 with Su Chih Chieh at the plate. He struck out, Lions scored again before Teng Chih Wei grounded to first leaving 2 on as Brothers clung on for the win. Final score: Brothers 9 Lions 8.

Thursday’s game was a young v old battle. Brothers Liao Yi Zhong v Lions Pan Wei Lun. Liao would be out the game and 0.2 innings conceding 2 hits and 3 walks. Lions took advantage of his lack of command and would lead 7-0 after 3. Veteran Pan who had struggled in his opening 2 nearly let Brothers back into it as it became 7 5 during the top of 5th, although only 3 runs were earned. Lions put it to bed with 5 more in the bottom of the 5th and a comeback was never likely. Final score: Brothers 6 Lions 12.

CTBC Brothers v Rakuten Monkeys – Weekend series

A classic match up between two of the CPBL’s best supported teams and they gave us 57 runs in this series

Friday saw the highest paid foreign in the league, Ariel Miranda head to Taoyuan to see if he could tame the Monkeys offense. Well, through 8 innings he did with just 4 hits and 3 runs given up. Brothers trailed 3-2 after 5 but would attack the Monkeys bullpen and lead 8-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. A safe lead right? Remember this is the CPBL and with Miranda gone, the Monkeys offense set to work. 8th man in Lin Hung Yu tied it at 8-8 with a hit to right. And so to extras the game went…

Both the 10th and 11th belonged to the pitchers but in the 12th Du Chia Ming and Wang Wei Chen hit RBIs to put Brothers back ahead. Despite making two hits off Hsieh Rong Hao the home side would not come back this time. Final score: Brothers 10 Monkeys 8.

Saturday’s game was the highest scoring of the season as Esmil Rogers faced Wang Yi Cheng. Both got knocked around a bit early, Brothers 5-1 up going into the bottom of the 3rd only for that Monkeys offense to kick in and score 7 runs with Rogers only able to get 2 outs, he was pulled and Brothers were never able to get back into the game. Behind 8-5 after 3, it only got worse. Chen Po Hao was ragdolled in the 6th for 5H, 1BB and 6R as the Monkeys went 15-5 ahead. Brothers made the score more respectable late o. but the Monkeys still won comfortably. Final score: Brothers 11 Monkeys 16.

Sunday’s was another case of foreign starter v local pitcher with Jose DePaula looking for his first CPBL win against Weng Wei Chun who Uni Lions had destroyed the previous Sunday.

The scores were locked at 2-2 after 3 but that Monkeys offense did it’s thing as Weng stayed strong on the mound for them. 3 in both the 4th and 5th put the home side 8-3 ahead. They’d only be one more run, to the Monkeys in the 6th as they eased to victory once again. De Paula has now 4 losses from 4 starts and Brothers will be desperately wanting Mitch Lively back soon. Final score: Brothers 3 Monkeys 9.

Fubon Guardians v Uni Lions – Weekend series.

Friday’s game looked like a mismatch. Henry Sosa against Chiang Chen Yen but what happened stunned everyone. Sosa had given away just 17 runs in 86 innings last season, Uni Lions hit 10 in just 2 to start the game. The score was 12-0 after 4 and the Lions would cruise to victory, they could even afford to concede 4 in the 6th but scored 3 back straight away anyway. Chen Chieh Hsien had 4 RBIs, Lin An Ko had 5 and Tang Chao Ting had 3 as the Lions pulled off shock of the season. Chiang Chen Yen had his first win with 5IP, 6H and 0R conceded. Final score: Guardians 6 Lions 15.

It’s always easy to assume a foreign pitcher will come out on top against a Taiwanese one, especially a young and struggling one. Chiang Gao Hao had had losses with a 12.27 ERA to start the year but this all changed as he faced Uni Lions and Ryan Feierabend. Chiang had a fantastic game with 6 shutout innings against a Lions side who’d hit 47 in their previous 4 games. Feierabend had his moments of brilliance but took a loss, a Wang Cheng Tung triple put Fubon 4 up in the 5th and they’d not look back. Uni Lions bullpen folded to a Guardians side who’d only been averaging 5 runs a game, 3 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th and 9th. Lin Yi Chuan hit 2HR combining for 5RBI in the 7th and 9th innings. Lions got consolation runs in innings 8 and 9 but it didn’t make the scoreboard look much better. Final score Guardians 11 Lions 2.

Uni Lions had made 5 hits on Saturday and were looking to bounce back. It was a battle of two young Taiwanese starters in You Ting Wai and Shih Tzu Chien, both had had good starts to the season. A low two innings was followed by two very dramatic ones. A Lin Yi Chuan RBI put Fubon 1-0 up in the top of the 3rd before the Lions loaded the bases with 0 outs partly thanks to 2 walks. Two pop up flies followed then Su Chih Chieh walked to tie the game. Kuo Fu Lin then cleared the bases with an always satisifying 3 RBI triple. 4-1 would become 5-1 and the home team looked in charge.

An error allowed Fubon to load the bases in the very next half inning, this would be costly. Lions got the next out but lead off man Hu Chin Long came to the plate and bettered Kuo Fu Lin’s triple with a game tying Grand Slam. In the 5th with 2 outs and 1 on, Lions pulled Shih Tzu Chien and his replacement Chiu Hao Chun immediately allowed Fubon to load the bases with Hu Chin Long to come to the plate. It wasn’t a 2nd Grand Slam but he did his a 2 RBI single. Lions pulled a run back off Bryan Woodall, put in to try regain a bit of form and he would end up with the win as he pitched 2.

Uni Lions would turn to starter Josh Roenicke to make a relief appearance and get some match practice but Fubon extended their lead and would score 5 runs off him in his 3 innings. Lions struggled with the bat, just 6 hits all evening but they got walked 7 times. Final score: Guardians 12 Lions 7, just 7 of those Guardians runs were earned as Lions made 4 errors.

This week’s schedule

Uni Lions v CTBC Brothers – Tues/Wed in Taichung

Fubon Guardians v Rakuten Monkeys – Thurs in Taoyuan

Uni Lions v Fubon Guardians – Fri, Sat, Sun at Xinzhuang

Rakuten Monkeys v CTBC Brothers – Fri, Sat, Sun in Taichung.

All midwek games at 6:35pm Taiwan time, 5:05pm at weekends.

Have a good week!

Tom.