(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Monkeys win Taiwanese title on No-Hitter!
Nederlands
 TAOYUAN CITY (Taiwan) -
American pitcher Pat Misch threw a No-Hitter on Sunday-evening (October 25) in an 11-0 shutout-victory of Lamigo Monkeys against Chinatrust Brothers Elephants in Game 7 to win the Taiwan Series.
In the best-of-seven, the Monkeys trailed 3-1 after four games, but then won the next three to capture the title of the Taiwanese professional league.
It was the ninth time in history that a seventh game was needed in the final of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
The 11-run margin broke the record for biggest margin in a final.
The previous record was eight in a 13-5 win for Uni-President Lions against Weichuan Dragons in 1991.
Last year, both teams also faced each other in the final.
The Monkeys then won 4-1.
It was the fourth championship-title in club-history.
With the winning of the title, the Monkeys ended a successful season in which it set a historic high for the sales of season tickets.
On Sunday, Pat Misch threw the first-ever No-Hitter in the postseason-history of professional baseball in Taiwan.
The lefthander struckout seven batters and faced the minimum of 27 batters in the game.
He only issued a walk to Cheng-min Peng in the fifth inning, otherwise he would have thrown a Perfect Game.
The 34-year old Misch pitched in six seasons in the Major League, appearing in 78 games for the San Francisco Giants (2006-2009) and New York Mets (2009-2011).
The Monkeys collected 17 basehits in the game.
Brothers-starter Pin-ruei Chiu ran into problems right away in the first inning, as he gave up a 2-run homerun to Chih-sheng Lin, that gave the Monkeys an early lead.
Lin was named the Most Valuable Player of the Championship Final, as he collected 14 hits, including three homeruns, batted in 11 runs and scored seven.
Po-Jung Wang was named Outstanding Player of the Taiwan Series.
Both Lin and Wang will play for the team of Taiwan during the upcoming Premier12.
In the third inning, the Monkeys rallied for five runs to take a commanding 7-0 lead.
First, Yen-wen Kuo hit a 2-run double, which led to a pitching change.
Chia-ming Tu took over, but also gave up a 2-run double to Te-lung Yu.
The Monkeys opened the Series with an 8-6 victory, playing at home in Taoyuan.
Hereafter, the Elephants won the next three games.
They first evened the series by winning Game 2 with a 6-5 score.
The next three games were played in Taichung.
The Elephants took a 2-1 lead in the series by winning Game 3 in 11 innings with a 9-8 score.
Hereafter, the Elephants won 12-7 to take a 3-1 lead in the series and were one win away from the title.
But then, the series turned the way of the Monkeys.
The team won Game 5 with a 9-2 on 16 hits to force a sixth game.
The finale moved back to Taoyuan and there, the Monkeys won a thriller on Saturday in Game 6, winning 5-4 to equal the series and force a seventh and deciding game.
On Saturday, the Elephants were leading 2-0 in the second inning, but failed to hold onto it.
César Valdéz started for the Monkeys, but gave up a lead-off double to Cheng-wei Chang, who then scored on a sacrifice fly.
Valdéz, who pitched in nine games for Arizona Diamondbacks (2010), then gave up a runscoring single to Chi-hung Hsu in the second inning.
The Monkeys came alongside in the bottom of the second off of American Bryan Woodall, thanks to a 2-run single by Te-lung Yu.
In the third, the Elephants re-took the lead on a single by Cheng-min Peng, which led to a pitching change.
Valdéz was relieved by American Jared Lansford, who gave up only two more basehits in the remainder of the game.
The former Triple-A pitcher in the organization of the Oakland Athletics is the son of former Major Leaguer Carney Lansford, who currently is the Hitting Coach of the Monkeys.
Thanks to Lansford's strong pitching and a 2-run double by Po-lung Wang in the fourth, the Monkeys took a 4-3 lead in the fourth, then added a run in the seventh on a double by Hung-yu Lin.
The Elephants narrowed the deficit to 5-4 on a basesloaded walk in the eighth, but then left the bases loaded when Lansford had a strong finish.
With that, the Monkeys equaled the series to set up the all-deciding seventh game on Sunday-evening.
(October 25)
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