The 2025 Taiwan Series will officially get underway Saturday as the Rakuten Monkeys face the CTBC Brothers.
It will mark the sixth time in the past 12 years that the two franchises have met in the championship series, with Rakuten winning four of the previous five matchups. Former Kansas City Royals minor leaguer Marcelo Martínez will start Game 1 for Rakuten, while former major league pitcher Nivaldo Rodríguez gets the call for the Brothers.
Martínez, in his second season in Taiwan, put together another strong campaign for the Monkeys. The left-hander posted a 2.51 ERA with 98 strikeouts over 158 innings. Rodríguez was even more dominant for CTBC, recording a 1.84 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 156 1/3 innings. Their duel should provide a fittingly high-quality start to the championship series.
The Brothers clinched their berth in the Taiwan Series by finishing first in the second-half standings and ending the regular season four games ahead of the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in the overall standings. The Lions, who captured the first-half title, faced Rakuten in a playoff series for the right to challenge CTBC for the championship.
Despite starting the playoff series with an automatic 1-0 advantage, the Lions squandered a 2-0 lead and dropped the best-of-five set 3-2. In the decisive Game 4, the Lions carried a 3-0 lead into the ninth inning before Chih-Ping Lin tied the game with a three-run homer. Li Lin then delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the 10th to give Rakuten a 4-3 lead.
Former Royals and Milwaukee Brewers farmhand Pedro Fernández earned the win after recording the final six outs across the ninth and 10th innings, sealing Rakuten’s return to the Taiwan Series.
The Monkeys and Brothers have combined for 17 Taiwan Series championships — 10 for CTBC and seven for Rakuten. The two last met in the 2022 Taiwan Series, when the Brothers swept Rakuten to capture what was then their ninth title. This time, Rakuten will be looking for payback as the rivals meet again to close out another thrilling CPBL season.
Illustration courtesy of the CPBL
