The CTBC Brothers clinched their spot in the Taiwan Series as the first-half winners of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). This helped them to test young talent in the final stretch of the season. Yueh Cheng-Hua, the starting center fielder for Chinese Taipei at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2019, made his debut against the Rakuten Monkeys on 26 September.
His older brother Yueh Dong-Hua, who played for Chinese Taipei at the WBSC Premier12 2019 and was named the Best Third Baseman in the inaugural WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup in 2016, was also in the starting lineup. The Yuehs became the third pair of brothers in CPBL history to appear in the same lineup with one of the two making his debut.
Yueh Cheng-Hua made his debut a memorable one. He drove in the first run of the night for the Brothers, thus collecting his first CPBL RBI. He then collected his first career hit and his first stolen base in the next at-bat. He hit a double in his third at-bat of the night, collecting his first career extra-base hit. Yueh Cheng-Hua collected his first career home run on 20 October against the first place Fubon Guardians. The three-run homer helped the Brothers win, 6-1.
Jason Ma and Lin Tze Pin were other notable prospects to make an impact with their debuts.
Ma, the first-round draft pick of the Rakuten Monkeys, became, at 18 years and 155 days, the youngest position player in the history of the franchise to make his CPBL debut. He played his first game on 17 October and collected his first hit in the first at-bat against the Brothers Dominican ace Jose DePaula.
Lin Tze-Pin, the third-round pick of the Monkeys in the 2019 draft, made his debut on the same night. The shortstop collected two hits in his first two at-bats and has gone six for eleven since his debut, posting a .545 batting average.
Taiwan Series
The best-of-seven Taiwan Series will open on 31 October at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium, the home of the CTBC Brothers. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions earned the right to compete for the title as they won the second half on the last day of the regular season.
This will mark the fifth time the two CPBL founding franchises meet in the postseason.
The Brothers competed in five of the last six Taiwan Series but lost four times against the Lamigo Monkeys and one time against the EDA Rhinos. Their last CPBL title dates back to 2010 when the franchise was known as the Brother Elephants.
The Lions won their last league title in 2013. They lost the 2018 Taiwan Series to the Lamigo Monkeys.
CPBL became the first professional league in the world to open the 2020 season amid the COVID-19 outbreak in April.
