BASEBALL/Chen Shih-peng throws 94-pitch 'Maddux' shutout in Guardians win

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Fubon Guardians left-hander Chen Shih-peng (陳仕朋), looking to regain his all-star form of past years, threw a rare "Maddux" on Thursday to lead his team to a 6-0 victory over the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in Tainan.

Chen needed only 94 pitches to record his fourth career complete-game shutout, in which he allowed six hits, struck out two and did not issue a walk or hit a batter.

It was Chen's first "Maddux," a term for a nine-inning complete-game shutout achieved with fewer than 100 pitches, named after Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux who threw 13 such games in his 23-year career.

In Chen's other complete-game shutouts, he had thrown at least 118 pitches.

It was also the second Maddux this season in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), following TSG Hawks right-hander Huang Tzu-peng's (黃子鵬) 93-pitch shutout on June 13.

The two performances marked the first time since 2015 that the league has recorded two Maddux shutouts in one regular season.

Beyond setting a personal milestone, the performance gave the former four-time all-star (in 2019 and 2022-2024) a much needed boost after a string of subpar performances earlier this season.

Chen struggled in two starts with the Guardians in May, allowing 10 runs over six innings before being sent to the club's farm team to make adjustments.

In his return to the Guardians on Thursday, the 28-year-old worked around six hits over the first six innings by inducing four double plays.

He then retired six consecutive batters in the seventh and eighth innings.

Third baseman Wang Nian-hao (王念好) committed an error to begin the ninth, but Chen retired the next three hitters to complete the shutout.

The Guardians gave Chen an early lead when Tung Tzu-en (董子恩) drove in two runs with a double in the first inning.

Fubon added three runs in the third before Yu Chang (張育成) hit a solo homer in the fifth to complete the scoring.

The homer was Chang's league-leading 12th of the season.

The Guardians finished the first half of the CPBL season with a 34-26 record, five games behind the Wei Chuan Dragons. They are tied for last in the second half with a 4-6 record, two games behind the league-leading Rakuten Monkeys and TSG Hawks.