Guardians Continue to Frustrate Lions as Uni is Swept at Home

Fubon Guardians (26-28) at Uni Lions (28-24)

Game 1

Fubon Guardians 13 at Uni Lions 1
Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Tuesday, September 26, 2017

WP:  No. 39 Mike Loree (16-4, 2.27 ERA)

LP:   No. 30 Michael Nix (2-4, 5.85 ERA)

MVP: Guardians SP Mike Loree (6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K)

Box Score & Game Highlights

Game 2

Fubon Guardians 7 at Uni Lions 5
Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium 
Thursday, September 28, 2017

WP:  No. 33 Cory Riordan  (2-5, 5.36 ERA)

LP:   No. 45 Shi Zhi-Qian (0-1, 4.91 ERA)

S: No. 56 Huang Sheng-Hsiung (1)

MVP: Guardians No. 22 Li Tsung-Hsien (3-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (4), 2B)

Box Score & Game Highlights

Series Notes:

• The Lions got swept at home versus the Guardians and now find themselves two full games behind the Monkeys who won both their games this week. 
• In Game 1, Guardians' SP Mike Loree continued his dominance over the Uni Lions and the CPBL in a 13-1 smackdown in Tainan. Loree set a career-high in strikeouts as he sat down 12 Lions en route to his ninth win in as many starts. You'd have to go back to August 2nd to find a start that the triple-crown leading Loree didn't win. The Guardians made things easy for their starter as they took Lions' SP Michael Nix for 10 runs -- nine earned --  on 13 hits in five frames (A couple of early defensive misplays really didn't help the Lions: i.e. this video and this video )
• Guardians' 2017 fifth-round pick No. 46 Fang Kuo-Chen had his best day as a professional in Game 1. The first baseman enjoyed a four-hit day (three singles and a double) while knocking in three and scoring once. He followed up that effort by going a perfect 3-for-3 in Game 2 and is now batting .571 through 17 plate appearances. Fang was given a US $60k bonus after signing earlier this year and earns roughly US $1,600 a month. 
• The Guardians got another solid start from their starting pitching in Game 2. RHP Cory Riordan allowed just one earned run across 5.2 innings while striking out seven and picking up his second win in the process. The Lions' bats finally woke up in the late innings but it was too little too late as they only scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, the same amount of runs scored as their previous 17 innings combined.
• Returning from hand surgery last weekend, Fubon slugger No. 32 Kao Kuo-Hui finished the series 2-for-9 with a pair of doubles.  
• Lions DH No. 55 Pan Wu-Hsiung had just one hit in nine plate appearances over the two-game series. Pan has not had an extra-base hit in eight-straight games or 33 plate appearances. 
• Fubon have been a difficult opponent for the Lions all year as the Guardians own the season series 21-16
• Taiwan Series Update: The Lions trail the Monkeys by two games in the league's second-half pennant race which they would need to capture to ensure that they advance to the 2017 Taiwan Series. However, if the Monkeys win the second half, the Lions will almost certainly play the Brothers in a Best-of-Five series with the winner of that moving on to face the Monkeys who will begin the series with a 1-0 advantage. The Lions have eight remaining games to play with just one of those coming against the Monkeys, the final game of the season on Oct 11.