Uni Lions vs Chinatrust Brothers

The Brothers finally broke through in the eighth. Reliever Li Chun (李軍) entered and faced three batters — all of whom singled. Chang Jen-Wei (張仁瑋, 2-for-5), Chang Shih-Lun (張士綸, 2-for-5), and Yueh Cheng-Hua (岳政華, 2-for-4) all singled to load the bases and force the Lions to the bullpen. Wu Cheng-Yu (吳承諭) entered but his wild pitch allowed the first Brothers run to score, and a subsequent hit brought in two more, cutting the deficit to 5-3 before Chiu Hao-Chun (邱浩鈞) recorded the final out with a strikeout to strand runners.

In the ninth, Chung Yun-Hua (鍾允華) worked around a one-out single to close it out, inducing a groundout from the tying run to end the game.

The inability of the Brothers to score earlier proved decisive. They left four runners on base against Jordan and managed just four hits through seven innings against the Lions' dominant starter.

• Jordan (喬登) — Player of the Match: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 6 K, 3 BB, 93 pitches. ERA dropped to 1.42 across his CPBL campaign. His third MVP selection of the season.
• Chu Chia-En (朱迦恩): 2-for-4, 2 R. Anchored the middle of the Lions order and scored twice.
• Chen Chung-Yu (陳重羽): 2-for-2, 1 R. Perfect at the plate from the No. 8 spot.
• Lin Tzu-Hao (林子豪): 2-for-3, 1 BB. Reached base three times from the sixth spot.
• Chung Yun-Hua (鍾允華): 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R. Closed the door in the ninth with the tying run on base.

For the Brothers, the top three of the order — Chang Jen-Wei (2-for-5, R), Chang Shih-Lun (2-for-5, R), and Yueh Cheng-Hua (2-for-4, R) — combined for six hits and all three runs, but the middle of the order went a combined 2-for-14. Clean-up hitter Tseng Sung-En (曾頌恩) walked twice but struck out twice and did not record a hit.

The box score tells a story of missed opportunity for the Brothers. They out-hit the Lions 10-9 but scored only three runs, all in a single inning. The Lions' pitching staff scattered 10 hits over 8.2 innings, but the Brothers went hitless in their limited run-scoring opportunities outside the eighth-inning rally. Uni Lions, by contrast, strung together hits in bunches — plating four of their five runs across the third and fourth innings when they needed just six hits to score four times. The Lions also played error-free defence while the Brothers committed one error.

The split leaves the Lions at 15-16 (fourth place) and the Brothers at 16-15 (third place), with both teams having played 31 games in the CPBL season. The rubber match of this three-game weekend series takes place on Sunday 23 August at 16:05 local time at Taipei Dome.

Jordan delivered the sort of dominant start the Lions needed after dropping a tight one-run game on Friday. Once the Lions built a multi-run lead, their bullpen had enough depth to absorb a late charge. The middle of the Brothers' order — which produced just two hits — will need to be sharper in Sunday's decider.