TAICHUNG, Taiwan | Defending champions CTBC Brothers defeated Rakuten Monkeys, 3-2, in Game Four to sweep the Taiwan Series. The Brothers became the first team in CPBL history to win back-to-back championships without losing a game in the finals. The Brothers swept the Lions last year under rookie manager Wei-Chu Lin. In his second year, Lin is now 8-0 in Taiwan Series history, the first manager in CPBL history to accomplish the achievement.
In front of 20,000 fans that packed the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, the Brothers struck first in the bottom of the first with Kun-Yu Chiang’s RBI single to take a 1-0 lead. The Monkeys answered right away in the second inning with Chien-Fu Liao’s solo home run to tie the game.
In the bottom of the second, Tung-Hua Yueh drove in the second run for the Brothers to retake the lead, 2-1, and subsequentially knocked Monkeys starter, Yi-Cheng Wang out of the game. The Brothers added an insurance run in the sixth to make it 3-1.
Brothers’ starter Che-Yuan Wu pitched a seven-inning, five-hit game only to yield two runs while fanning six and walking one. The Monkeys scored the second run of the night in the eighth but came up short in the ninth as Brothers’ closer Yen-Ching Lu struck out Yu-Hsien Chu to clinch the title.
“It’s a reward for all the hard work we have done over the last two seasons. It’s beyond exuberance to clinch the title at home with a full house of fans cheering for us,” said Lin during the post-game interview.
Last season Lin led the team to finally win the Taiwan Series for the first time in seven attempts over eight seasons.
The Brothers now have nine titles, second only to the Lions, which hold the CPBL record with ten championships.
