I wasn’t very well two weeks ago and since then I’ve been busy. 5 Lions away games in 8 days and I’ve barely had time. This is a double headed round-up. We will start with the games between 9th and 14th June before moving onto 16th-21st. The 3rd round up will come after that.

Lions v Monkeys on Tues 10th and Wed 11th in Taoyuan.

Tuesday’s was close encounter with no runs in the opening 3 innings as Chiang Chen Yen faced Ryan Carpenter. The Lions took a 4-0 lead by the mid of the 5th only for the game to be pulled back to 4-3 after 6 with Kuo Yun Wen hitting a solo homer in the 6th.

Uni Lions scored in the 7th and 8th only to be pegged again in the 8th by Lan Yin Lun and Lin Hung Yu RBIs. Both sides would score again with the Lions holding onto wi. 7-6.

Wednesday’s game was a lot different, Liang Chia Jung’s 2nd inning homer put the Monkeys on top with Justin Nicolino keeping the visitors quiet. This changed after the Lions tied the game in 4th and established an 8-2 lead by the end of the 6th. The Monkeys never looked like coming back and Lin Tzu Chieh hit a 3 run homer to cap off a superb Lions performance making it 11-2. It finished Lions 11 Monkeys 2.

Guardians v Brothers on Wed 10th and Thurs 11th in Taichung.

Lin Yi Chuan’s first inning 3 run home run could have been the start of a good night for the Guardians but it wasn’t. Chou Shi Chi instantly came back with a 2 run shot and Brothers scored in the 2nd and 3rd to lead 4-3 after 3. Guardians retook the lead with a run in each the 5th and 6th but it was quickly through a 2 RBI shot by Chan Tzu Hsien. The visitors struggled with the bat making just 5 hits all off starter Jose DePaula. Guardians 5 Brothers 6 was how it ended.

Thursday’s game was another close one but the outcome was the same. Fubon scored 3 in the opening 3 but wouldn’t trouble the scorers again. Chou Shi Chi and Su Chi Hung both hit home runs to pull it back to 3-2 off Woodall but they’d be no score again until a Chang Chih Hao sac fly in the 7th. Chou hit his 3rd homer of the series in the bottom of the 8th and that would be the winning run. Final score: Guardians 3 Brothers 4.

Guardians v Lions – Fri, Sat, Sun in Tainan.

Fubon Guardians took yet another early lead but found themselves on the end of another defeat in Friday’s game. The visitors went 4-0 up going into the bottom of the 2nd but Chen Yung Chi and Su Chih Chieh hit B2B homers and the Lions ended the 2nd back at 4-4. Pan Wu Hsiang made it 7-4 with a 3 run blast in the 3rd and the Lions would go on to win comfortably. It finished: Guardians 4 Lions 10.

In a battle between Henry Sosa and Josh Roenicke the pitchers had the advantage until the 5th. With the game scoreless Lin Yu Ying hit a 2 run double and the Guardians lead. Sosa left after 6 giving up just 2 hits but once he was gone the Lions turned the game around. Su Chih Chieh’s fly led to an error and the game was pulled back to 2-1 in the 7th before Tang Chao Ting and Deng Chih Wei hit B2B RBIs to put the Lions ahead in the 8th. There was no further score and it ended Guardians 2 Lions 3.

Logan Darnell’s 4th start brought about a loss and Uni Lions missed out on the chance to sweep the week for the first time in 3 years. Darnell gave up a plethora of grounders and the Guardians went 5 up in the 2nd. The visitors made 6 in the 3rd but after that, things calmed down. The Lions had their usual struggles against Chen Shih Peng and managed only 2 runs in the 4th. They’d be no further score in this game. Guardians 6 Lions 2.

Brothers v Monkeys – Fri, Sat, Sun in Taoyuan

Lisalverto Bonila pitched threw 109 over 8 shutout innings as Rakuten Monkeys beat CTBC Brothers 4-0. All 4 runs came in the 4th with Chen Chun Hsiu hitting a 2 RBI homer and Liang Chia Jung pitching in with 2 RBI of his own.

Brothers scored 4 runs off Elih Villanueva in the opening frame and it was a lead that wouldn’t be chased down. Facing Mitch Lively the Monkeys always had a difficult task and were 5-1 down after 3 only to get back to 6-5 after 5. With Lively gone, the home side had to face the Brothers bullpen again no easy task and they managed just a couple of hits. Brothers in fact extended the lead in the top of 9th and it was sealed the victory. Final score: Brothers 8 Monkeys 5.

Sunday’s game looked like a cracker on paper and both Miranda and Carpenter pitched superbly. Miranda was unlucky, 2 of the 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st were unearned and these would be costly. Brothers Su Chi Hung got their only RBI in the 4th as Carpenter allowed 7 hits and 1 runoff 7 innings. Lin Hung Yu scored a 5th inning home run for the Monkeys and that was the end of the scoring. Final score: Brothers 1 Monkeys 4.

—That completes weekly round up 11—

Brothers v Guardians – Tues 17th and Wed 18th at Xinzhuang

5 Brothers hit home runs including 3 off Mike Loree as they smashed the Guardians. Kao Hsiao Yi and Kao Kuo Lin managed homers off their own for the Guardians with the score 5-0 and 5-1 but they were mere consolations. Loree went off after 7 with the score 6-2 Brothers and the bullpen allowed the runs to continue, conceding 5 more. It ended Brothers 11-2 Guardians.

If Guardians fans thought Tuesday was painful, Wednesday was worse. Shen Hao Wei hit a homer in the bottom of the 9th with the score 15-0 Brothers. The visitors systematically dismantled the home team who made 2 errors that allowed 4 unearned runs. 1 run in the 1st, 5 in the 4th and 4 in the 5th put Brothers up 10 after 6. Bryan Woodall returned to start the 7th and immediately conceded a home run, Woodall gone and Fan Yu Yu came in. Fan gave up 4 hits, 4 runs and 2 walks as he couldn’t even complete the inning. No further score until the aforementioned Shen Hao Wei homer. It ended Brothers 15 Guardians 1

Monkeys v Lions – Wed 18th and Thurs 19th in Tainan

All the scoring was done early in this one with Chiang Chen Yen giving up 3 home runs Lan Yin Lun hit a 2 run shot and Yang Yao Hsun single as Monkeys went 3 up in the 2nd. Lin Li hit a solo shot in the 3rd and a Lan Yin Lun double made it 5-0 by the end of the inning. They’d be resistance, Lions loading the bases in the bottom of the 3rd and Wu Chieh Rui brought home a run but also got an out too. Lin Yu Le’s 2 run home run made it 5-3 but they’d be no further scoring. 4 and half blank innings followed and so the game finished Monkeys 5 Lions 3.

On Thursday two youngsters, Weng Wei Chun and Shih Tzu Chien started with 1 clear winner. Weng was battered by the Lions who hit 9 runs in the first 4 including two home runs to Su Chih Chieh. Of course the Monkeys would fight back. Chen Chen Wei and Yang Yao Hsun went B2B in the 5th and Chu Yu Hsien hit an RBI later in that inning. Chen hit another homer in the 6th and the Monkeys would score in the 7th too. With the visitors creeping back into it, Chen Chieh Hsien hit a rare home run and Uni Lions saw out the game. Final score: Monkeys 5 Lions 10.

Lions v Guardians – Fri, Sat, Sun at Xinzhuang.

In Friday’s game Fubon Guardians edged a close encounter in the battle between Ryan Feierabend and Henry Sosa. The hosts scored regularly to lead 5-2 after 4 before two runs in the 6th made it 5-4. Uni Lions leveled in the 9th only for Kao Kuo Hui to hit a two out walk off shot. Final score: Lions 5 Guardians 6.

Saturday was a little different as Josh Roenicke pitched 7 shutout innings and the Lions offense hit 11 runs in that time. Fubon scored 4 off the out of form Chiu Hao Chun but the visitors also managed 2 more runs of their own. 6 homers on the night for the Lions. Final score: Lions 13 Guardians 4.

It was nearly the same scoreline on Sunday although this time Fubon scored their runs early. Kao Kuo Hui hit a 2 run shot in the 1st but the Lions went ahead very briefly in the 4th with 3 runs, only for Fubon to reply instantaneously with 3 of their own. From the end of the 4th on, the Lions dominated with 10 runs spread across the 5th and 8th. Lin An Ko went 5 for 5 with 6 RBI and 2 homers. Fubon got late consolation but it finished Lions 13 Guardians 6.

Monkeys v Brothers – Fri, Sat, Sun in Taichung

Bonila v Lively on the mound and we got the pitching battle we expected. 2-2 after 5, Bonila pitched 7 and Lively 8 with the latter conceding a 3rd run in the 8th. The Monkeys added a fourth off Tsai Chi Che and then something strange happened…Monkeys closer Wang Yue Lin allowed a home run then for Brothers to tie. He got the 2nd out with 2 on only for Yueh Dong Hua to walk off with a 3 run blast. Monkeys 4 Brothers 7.

Villenueva and Miranda had had contrasting starts in the last appearances, this time the good Villanueva showed. 7 innings, 3H and 1R against his former team. The Monkeys offense went to work on Miranda hitting the ball over the fence 4 times in the opening 5, 10H, 9R and an impenetrable lead. The visitors added two more in the 6th off a reliever and that would be it for scoring. Chang Chih Hao was the only Brothers player to score in the 2nd. Final score: Monkeys 11 Brothers 1.

On Sunday Monkeys Ryan Carpenter followed up his previous start by once again pitching 7 but with even better stats. Just 5 hits and 1 unearned run in the 5th by which time they led 4-0. Unbelievably the Monkeys made 5 errors but would only concede once! Their offense added 4 more in the 6th and the bullpen shutout Brothers in the 8th and 9th. Final score: Monkeys 8 Brothers 1.

Next round-up to come soon!

Tom.