Taipei, Oct. 19 (CNA) The Brother Elephants shut out the Sinon Bulls 3-0 Tuesday in game three of the 2010 Taiwan Series of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in the northern city of Taoyuan to move within one win away from its seventh title and a new record.
The Elephants, which lost its manager and almost half of its players to a major game-fixing scandal that came to light in October last year, could wrap up the best-of-seven series as early as Wednesday night, when game four is played in Sinjhuang City, Taipei County.
A title win would be a special one for first-year manager Chen Jui-chen and his team, which consists mainly of young and inexperienced players brought on board after the scandal last year. At one point, owner Hung Jui-ho said that he was considering whether to disband the team.
Starting pitcher Orlando Roman shut out the Bulls in nine strong innings with seven strikeouts and allowed only three hits.
Yeh Chun-chang, who played for Sinon for 10 years before being released in 2009, had an RBI (runner batted in) single in the bottom of the third inning as Chang Chih-hao, who had a double in the previous at-bat, scored.
The Elephants added three hits, including Huang Shih-hao's triple to the centerfield in the bottom of the eighth.
Arguably the most storied franchise in the four-team CPBL, the Elephants is making its third straight run at the title after losing in 2008 and 2009, both times to the Uni-President Lions. It has won the title six times, a record among the CPBL teams, with the last one coming in 2003.
The Bulls' starting pitcher Lin Ying-chieh suffered his fourth straight loss in the Taiwan Series. The Bulls won the series in 2004 and 2005. (By Chris Wang) enditem/jc