BASEBALL/Uni-Lions fastest team to reach 11 wins in CPBL history

Taipei, April 18 (CNA) The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions recorded one of the hottest season starts in Taiwan's professional baseball league history after routing the Rakuten Monkeys 10-0 in Tainan on Wednesday.

The shutout game at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium marked the Uni-Lions' fifth straight victory and 11th win in their first 13 games of the 2024 Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season, making them the fastest team to achieve that number of wins in the 35-year-old league.

The team tallied up 19 hits, led by left fielder Chiu Chih-cheng's (邱智呈) five, his career-best, and a two-run blast by rookie Lin Chia-wei (林佳緯), to score at least one run in all but three innings.

But the MVP of the game went to Uni-Lions' starting pitcher Logan Ondrusek. The right-hander served up six scoreless innings and struck out 10 while scattering six hits for the second win of his third CPBL season.

That dominance saw the 39-year-old's earned run average (ERA) improve to 3.18 after the game. His ERAs were 1.87 and 2.35, respectively, in his first and second years with the Uni-Lions.

With an 11-2 record, the Uni-Lions are the only franchise with a winning percentage above 50 percent, and are 4.5 games ahead of the 7-7 Wei Chuan Dragons and the 6-6 CTBC Brothers, who are tied in second place.

Meanwhile, the Monkeys suffered a three-game slump and now sit fifth in the six-team league. Now 5-8, the team has only one more win than the newly joined TSG Hawks.

During that losing streak, the Monkeys collected only 19 hits in 111 plate appearances to score one run.

Also on Wednesday, the Dragons trounced the Hawks 12-3 in Yunlin County, handing the latter their sixth consecutive loss, and the Fubon Guardians fended off the Brothers 10-4 at home in Xinzhuang, New Taipei.

The Guardians will host the Brothers again on Thursday at 6:35 p.m. for the only CPBL game that day.