BASEBALL/Rakuten Monkeys tie CPBL finals 1-1 in another battle of pitchers

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) finals Game 2 in Taipei Sunday followed pretty much the same script as the series opener, with a low scoring game before the Rakuten Monkeys capitalized on a four-run 11th inning to take the win 4-0 and tie the series.

The two teams had difficulty scoring runs in the first 10 innings mainly courtesy of the their starting pitchers.

With 10,000 fans turning out for a second straight day, Wei Chuan Dragons' Jacob Daniel Brigham and Monkeys' Huang Tzu-peng (黃子鵬) each served up eight scoreless innings with 93 pitches, yielding three and five hits, respectively.

The turning point in the game came in the top of the 11th when Wang Wei-chung (王維中) took to the mound.

After striking out Chen Chen-wei (陳晨威) first, Wang walked Lin Li (林立) and suffered a blow from Liang Chia-jung's (梁家榮) double that put the Monkeys on the board.

The Monkeys then collected three hits in a row and one more walk as well as a strikeout before Wang was pulled from the mound.

Wang recorded four earned runs while retiring only two batters.

Asked to comment on the chaotic frame, Dragons manager Yeh Chun-chang (葉君璋) said he noticed that Wang throws pitches with more confidence when Liu Shih-hao (劉時豪) is behind the home plate, but he chose to believe in Wang and did not make the change until the Monkeys scored two runs.

Yeh praised the Monkeys for fixing problems quickly overnight and said that is something the young Dragons should learn from, but added he thought the team performed well overall despite the loss.

The victory was the first Taiwan Series win for Rakuten Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu (曾豪駒), who praised Huang's progress over the past year.

"I noticed that he was kinda nervous last year, but he has been showing confidence on the mound this season. I believe that the win today will help him a lot," Tseng said after the game.

Huang's strong outing helped not only himself but also his teammates, according to Liang.

"We saw the great performance of our starting pitcher, persevering, and that made the whole team want to help him," said the batting average leader of the 2023 regular season.

Huang's outstanding night also earned him the praise of broadcaster Jacky Lee (李秉昇), who pointed out Sunday's game was Huang's best ever performance in the Taiwan Series.

The 29-year-old right-hander had played eight games in the Taiwan Series with a 9.58 ERA prior to Sunday, giving up 11 runs over 10 1/3 innings pitched.

He only started once in Game 3 last year against the CTBC Brothers, in which he yielded six runs in a 4 1/3 inning-stint.

Meanwhile, this is the first time in CPBL history that the Taiwan Series went to extra innings in the first two games and the third time the series has seen back-to-back extra-inning games.

Both of the other times involved the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions and the CTBC Brothers (then Brother Elephants) and took place in 2001 and 2009.

The Monkeys will host the Dragons for Games 3 and 4 in Taoyuan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to broadcaster Lee, when two teams are 1-1 after the first two games in the Taiwan Series, history indicates each side has a 50 percent chance of lifting the trophy in the best-of-seven series.