The Chinese Professional Baseball League’s CTBC Brothers needed a win on Friday night in Taiwan to clinch the highest winning percentage this season. They secured a 2-0 victory against the TSG Hawks and automatically advanced to this year’s Taiwan Series, the CPBL’s championship series.
The Brothers entered the game against the Hawks as champions of the second-half season, having secured a 6-2 win against the Wei Chuan Dragons at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on Thursday night. Their latest half-season title gives them 20 all-time, the most of any of the six current CPBL organizations.
Starting pitcher Lin Huei-sheng put together a stellar outing for the Brothers against the Dragons, allowing just one run on five hits with two strikeouts in seven innings. Lin was named the game’s MVP, per Focus Taiwan.
The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions clinched the first-half season title with a 36-0-24 record, finishing two games ahead of the Brothers. The Uni-Lions are to play a best-of-five playoff series against the club with the best full-season record that did not win a half-season title. The winner advances to the Taiwan Series for a battle with the Brothers.
“It was extremely regrettable for us as a team and for our fans that we could not take the first-half title,” Brothers manager Keiichi Hirano told reporters, including Focus Taiwan, after the win against the Dragons. “Our next goal is to become the team with the highest winning percentage this year.”
Mission accomplished.
As things stand, the Uni-Lions’ playoff opponent would be the Rakuten Monkeys, who hold a 2.5-game lead over the Hawks with just three days remaining on the CPBL regular season calendar. The Monkeys defeated the Uni-Lions 7-3 on Thursday, and the two teams will face off again in the league’s only contest of the day on Monday.
The Taiwan Series is a best-of-seven round with a 2-2-3 format. The Brothers defeated the Uni-Lions in five games in last year’s edition of the championship, tying the Tainan-based club for the most titles in league history, with 10.
Photo: The CTBC Brothers claimed a berth in the Taiwan Series with a 6-2 win against the Wei Chuan Dragons at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images)
