Fan Kuo-chen's Double Play Helps Guardians Win, Brothers Suffer Fastest 6th Loss in Team History

The Guardians took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning today with Fan Kuo-chen's 2-run homer. Fan Kuo-chen also tied with Rakuten Monkeys' Chen Chen-wei with 3 homers for the home run king title. The Brothers' lineup, which underwent a major change, scored their first run in the top of the second inning with Wang Cheng-shun's double. In the top of the third inning, Wang Wei-chen hit a 3-run homer, his first of the season, helping the Brothers take the lead.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Guardians narrowed the gap to one run with Chang Yu-cheng's solo homer, but failed to score further against Cheng Hao-chun. Cheng Hao-chun pitched 6 innings, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs, and striking out 8. It wasn't until the bottom of the 8th inning that the Guardians tied the score with Wang Nien-hao's pinch-hit double and Yeh Tzu-ting's single with two outs.

In the top of the 10th inning of extra innings, the Brothers loaded the bases with hits, walks, and the runner starting on second due to the tie-break rule. Guardians first baseman Fan Kuo-chen threw to home plate to initiate a double play, and pitcher Liao Jen-lei then struck out the batter himself, defusing the crisis.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Fan Kuo-chen hit a single, putting runners on first and third. After Wang Cheng-tang's pinch-hit out, Lin Yue-gu successfully hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to left field, ending the game.

The Brothers, with a 1-5 record before the game, were at the bottom of the 6 teams. Today they suffered their 4th consecutive loss, with 6 losses in 7 games, setting the fastest record for 6 losses since CTBC Group took over in 2014. The previous fastest records were in 2017 and 2018, when they suffered 6 losses in their 8th game.

The Guardians arranged Lin Che-hsuan's last game yesterday, attracting 11,201 people. Today, after the game, a retirement ceremony will be held for Lin Che-hsuan, and the Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium was packed with 11,600 people. All three games at Xinzhuang this season have had over 10,000 attendees, with two of them being sold out. (Edited by Chen Jen-hua) 1150406