The Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan is closing in on the end of August, and a new team has climbed to the top of the standings in the league’s second half, with teams one through five separated by just 2.5 games.

The CTBC Brothers, after struggling to a 20-37-2 record and a last-place finish in the league’s first half, have soared to the top spot in the second half.

On Wednesday, the Brothers and Rakuten Monkeys met at the Taipei Dome in a crucial matchup. The game featured one of the better pitching duels of the season. Jia-Hui Zheng of the Monkeys and Li-Chen Wu of the Brothers each went seven scoreless innings.

With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth, the Brothers finally broke through. Cheng-Jui Sung’s RBI single broke the scoreless deadlock. They added a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game. Chen-Chang Lee came in and worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to give the Brothers a huge 2-0 win over the Monkeys and pull themselves within a half-game of first place.

This weekend, the Brothers and Fubon Guardians played a big series for both teams. The Brothers entered the weekend trailing the Rakuten Monkeys by just a half-game for first place. The Guardians entered the weekend holding the wild-card spot by 2.5 games over the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions.

On Friday, the Guardians and Brothers met at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Game 1. After a back-and-forth game, the Brothers led 3-2 in the ninth. The Guardians tied it with two outs on a Cheng-Tang Wang single.

Each team then scored in the 10th to make it a 4-4 game heading into the 11th. After a scoreless 11th, the Brothers had the bases loaded with one out, with the winning run just 90 feet away. Guardians reliever Jui-Ling Chang induced a weak groundball to second baseman Ze-Bin Lin, but Lin’s throw was wide, allowing the Brothers to secure a 5-4 win in 11 innings.

The win lifted the Brothers into first place by a half-game, while the Guardians saw their wild-card lead slip to just 1.5 games over the Lions.

On Saturday, the two teams met once again, with the Brothers leading 2-0. A Guardians squad that had lost three of four games needed a spark and got one in a big way in the sixth. Yi-Cheng Wang stepped to the plate with two on and nobody out and delivered a go-ahead three-run homer to give the Guardians a 3-2 lead.

Ze-Bin Lin atoned for his error on Friday night with a two-run double in the seventh to give Fubon a 5-2 lead. After extending the lead to 6-2, the Brothers rallied with two runs in the eighth. In the ninth, they put two runners on with two outs, but Guardians closer Jyun-Yue Tseng got a flyout to secure a huge 6-4 win for the Guardians.

The series finale on Sunday featured both teams looking for a huge series win. The Brothers broke through with a groundout in the third for a 1-0 lead. They broke the game open with a three-run fourth. Kun-Yu Chiang delivered an RBI single, and two batters later, Wei-Sheng Huang delivered a two-run single to give the Brothers a 4-0 lead after four innings.

Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Jen-Wei Chang delivered his fourth home run of the season for a 5-0 lead.

Later in the inning, Tzu-Hsien Chan made it 6-0 on an RBI single. The Brothers cruised to a 6-1 win to take the series over Fubon.

Jun-You You went seven shutout innings and had just one strikeout as the crafty lefty found a way to work around traffic on the bases throughout the game to help secure a huge win for the Brothers.

They moved to 20-17 in the second half and have already matched their entire win total from the first half in 22 fewer games.

In another crucial series, the Rakuten Monkeys took on the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. The Monkeys began the series Friday in a virtual tie with the Wei Chuan Dragons for first place, while leading the Brothers by a half-game and the Lions by two games.

After splitting the first two games, the Monkeys and Lions met in the rubber match Sunday at the Taipei Dome. With the Monkeys leading 1-0 after four innings, the Lions finally broke through in the fifth.

Hong-Xian Lin tied the game with an RBI double, and Chih-Cheng Chiu followed with a two-run single to give the Lions a 3-1 lead. A double play two batters later brought home the fourth run. They extended their lead to 5-1 in the sixth.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Monkeys struck back. With the bases loaded, Chieh-Sen Ma delivered a two-run single to make it a 5-3 game. Chen-Wei Chen followed with an RBI single, and the Monkeys had cut the deficit to 5-4.

In the game’s biggest moment, with the tying run 90 feet away, Wen-Yi Kuo struck out Monkeys star Li Lin to preserve the 5-4 lead. The rest of the bullpen slammed the door from there, retiring the next nine hitters, with Yun-Hua Chung getting the final out as the Lions clinched a huge 5-4 win to take the series.

With the Lions’ win, the CTBC Brothers once again retook the top spot and would be in the playoffs if the postseason began today, despite their 20-37-2 record in the league’s first half.

The Lions now trail the Brothers by 1.5 games for the top spot in the league’s second half and are just one game behind both the Dragons and Monkeys for second place in the second half. They are 1.5 games behind the Fubon Guardians for the wild-card spot and final playoff position.

Former Minor League Arm Making an Impact with the Guardians - Former Nationals and Marlins farmhand AJ Candelario has debuted with the Fubon Guardians after signing earlier this month following a stint in the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol.

He made his debut Aug. 23 against the Wei Chuan Dragons and allowed one run in six innings with six strikeouts. He followed that up with another strong performance Saturday against the CTBC Brothers, going six innings with five strikeouts while allowing two runs.

Through two starts, he has gone 12 innings with 11 strikeouts and a 2.25 ERA. He has given the Guardians a much-needed lift in the rotation after the team struggled to find consistency there for much of the season.

The league’s second half will conclude Sept. 28. Before the postseason begins, the Brothers and Lions will play a makeup game from the league’s first half. It is a game that could very well be an elimination game for the Lions and their wild-card hopes if they cannot win the league’s second half.

Second-half Standings
1. CTBC Brothers - 20-17
2. Rakuten Monkeys - 17-15
3. Wei Chuan Dragons - 18-16
4. Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions - 18-18
5. TSG Hawks - 16-18
6. Fubon Guardians - 14-19