LIONS STUMBLE AS TAIWAN’S SECOND HALF OPENS

After holding off the La New Bears to win the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s first-half title, the defending Taiwanese champion Uni-President Lions have lost eight of the first ten games of their second-half schedule to drop into the CPBL cellar. The Lions won the first-half crown with a 34-24-2 record, just ahead of the 33-26-1 Bears.

Sinon defeated the Lions, 6-4, last Sunday to even the Bulls’ second-half record at 5-5, thanks to Da-hong Cheng’s three-run walkoff homer at Taipei County Stadium. The loss marked the first time in 19 seasons that Uni-President has dropped seven straight games as the Lions fell to 2-8 in the standings.

In other CPBL action last Sunday, the Brother Elephants pulled back into a first-place tie with the Bears following a 12-inning, 4-3 win in Tianmu. A fielding error by La New rookie Chih-ping Lin let in the winning run to snap a six-game Bears winning streak. Elephants reliever Jia-rei Mai tossed two scoreless innings to earn the win in relief as Brother avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of the Bears and moved back into a first-place tie with both teams at 6-3. The Elephants finished a distant last in the first half with a 21-38 record.