CTBC Brothers beat Dragons and extend the final series — Taipei Times
In Taipei, Taiwan, the CTBC Brothers baseball club defeated the Wei Chuan Dragons 4-3 in Game 5 of the Taiwan Series. With their second consecutive win, the Brothers cut the deficit in the best-of-seven series to 2-3 and sent the matchup to Game 6, Taipei Times reports.
Decisive ninth inning
With the score tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth inning, shortstop Chiang Kun-yu reached base after his third hit of the game. First baseman Huang Wei-sheng hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Chiang to score the decisive run.
In the bottom of the ninth, Brothers relief pitcher Félix Peña did not allow any of the three Dragons batters to reach base and preserved the win. CTBC starting pitcher Nivaldo Rodríguez pitched 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on three hits.
Dragons tied the score in the seventh inning
In the fourth inning, the Dragons' Liu Chih-hung hit a solo home run. In the bottom of the seventh, the Dragons trailed 1-3 but tied the score after Rodríguez was replaced while Liu was on second base. Chang Chen-yu hit an RBI double to score Liu, and Kuo Tien-hsin added an RBI single for a 3-3 score.
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Game 5 was initially scheduled for Friday, but it was postponed twice due to school and office closures in Taipei caused by Typhoon Champi. The two-day break gave the Brothers' key pitchers additional time to recover. Rodríguez had previously pitched six scoreless innings in Game 3 of the series.
The Brothers recorded nine hits in Game 5, continuing to improve their offense. In Game 4, the team scored five runs on eight hits, while in the first three games of the series it managed only three runs and nine hits. Game 6 is scheduled for 15:05 local time at Taipei Dome.
After losing the opening three games, the Brothers became the first team in the history of the Chinese Professional Baseball League's Taiwan Series to win two consecutive games. No club had previously come back from 0-3 to win the championship. CTBC reached its third consecutive Taiwan Series after defeating the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in the first-round playoffs, while the Dragons qualified automatically as the team with the best CPBL regular-season record.
