CPBL: Brothers & Guardians Start Slow, End Fast.

In game two of their three game series at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium Saturday night, the CTBC Brothers early on added salt to an already raw wound suffered by the Fubon Guardians in an 11 – 0 drubbing 24-hours earlier at the hands of the Taichung outfit.

Coming just days after their own 13 – 2 Tuesday night hammering of the visiting Uni-Lions, the Guardians looked tired from the outset.

Pitching Duel

The match had initially been billed as a mound battle between the Guardians star hurler, Henry Sosa, and Esmil Rogers of the Brothers; a Dominican VS Dominican face-off.

As early as the third inning though, the Brothers were leading by three, courtesy a trio of RBIs given up by Sosa.

The Fubon Angels willing their team home

Little was offered in return until the bottom of the fifth when Lin Che-Hsuan came home to get the Guardians on the scoreboard.

The Guardians Stir

The top of the sixth saw the Brothers add one more to their tally – the home team answering in kind next time up when third baseman Lee Tsung-Hsien came home after an excellent line drive by designated hitter Chiang Chih-Hsien; the DH himself was then driven home by the next man up for the Guardians, Lin Yi-Chuan.

As had then become the norm, Lin became the next RBI when Lin Che-Hsuan hit the ball deep into left field. The scores were tied at 4 – 4.

Rogers was withdrawn from the Brothers mound, and the Guardians had finally woken up.

Lin Che-Hsuan added a final RBI stat to the scoreboard for the inning, and in the blink of an eye the Guardians were ahead 5 – 4 on the night.

A single Brothers RBI in the seventh leveled the scores again, before Guardians 29-year-old closer Lin Yi-Hao, came in, and rattled a few nerves on the home bench by loading the bases before closing down the visitors.

Brothers RBI Wins It

No response forthcoming from the Guardians in the bottom of the inning was followed by the Brothers opening batter Wang Wei-Chen coming home in the eighth.

The Brothers led 6 – 5 off 11 hits to 6 on the night at this point.

No more runs were added, leaving the game to fizzle out.

The team from Taichung will be looking to complete the sweep tomorrow before continuing their road trip at Tainan then Taoyuan before heading home on May 5th.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.