2019 Taiwan Series

The 2019 Taiwan Series featured the two-time defending champion Lamigo Monkeys against the Chinatrust Brothers. Lamigo won its third straight title, though it was being sold to the Japanese company Rakuten due to financial issues and would thus be renamed in 2020.

Teams

Lamigo Monkeys

The Monkeys were guided by I-Chung Hong. They were 35-24-1 to win the first half of the 2019 CPBL and 28-31-1 in the second half. They hit .318/.377/.493 as a team and easily led the league with 799 runs. They allowed 686, with a 5.11 ERA ranking 3rd among the 4 teams. 3B Li Lin (.389/.438/.639, 29 2B, 20 HR, 97 R) won the batting title, followed by 1B Chun-Hsiu Chen (.381/.449/.619, 22 HR, 89 RBI). C Hung-Yu Lin (.350/.416/.585, 26 HR, 95 RBI, 106 R) led in runs, was 4th in average, tied for 4th in homers and was 3rd in RBI. OF Yu-Hsien Chu (.347/.394/.605) led with 30 homers, was 2nd with 105 RBI and was 5th in average. They did have some effective hurlers: Michael Nix (11-9, 3.86) was 3rd in K (141), tied for 4th in wins and 4th in ERA, Radhames Liz (16-6, 2 Sv, 4.18) led with 179 K and led in wins while ranking 5th in ERA and Yi-Cheng Wang (12-5, 4.84) tied for 2nd in wins. Tzu-Peng Huang (4-5, 3 Sv, 3.25) returned as their ace reliever.

Chinatrust Brothers

Under skipper Scott Budner, the Brothers had gone 26-32-2 in the first half but won the second half at 36-24. They were second in offense (672 R) and pitching (4.58 ERA). OF Tzu-Hsien Chan (.351/.402/.638) was the only non-Monkey to make the top 5 in average (3rd) and tied 1B Chih-Sheng Lin (.291/.359/.537) for 4th with 26 HR. 3B Wei-Chen Wang (.317/.349/.370) led the CPBL with 27 steals. C.C. Lee (3-1, 10 Sv, 1.26) and Kai-Wen Cheng (11-3, 2 Sv, 2.91, tied for 2nd in wins) led the relief corps, while Elih Villanueva (9-3, 2.92) did not qualify for the ERA leaderboard and Mitch Lively (10-11, 3.23) was 2nd in ERA and 4th with 140 strikeouts.

Games

Game 1

October 12 at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium (20,010)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
CTBC Brothers	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	5	8	3
Lamigo Monkeys	0	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	11	0

Brothers: Elih Villanueva - Kai-Wen Cheng (L, 0-1) - C.C. Lee

Monkeys: Radhames Liz - Tzu-Peng Huang (H, 1) - Yu-Hsun Chen - Thomas Dorminy - Yao-Lin Wang (W, 1-0)

Home Runs Wei-Chen Wang (1)

Liz carried a 5-3 lead into the 8th but Yu-Hsun Chen gave up two in the 9th. Lamigo came back with one in the bottom of the 9th to persevere.

Game 2

October 13 at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium (18,610)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
CTBC Brothers	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13	20	1
Lamigo Monkeys	1	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	1	6	10	1

Brothers: Yi-Chung Liao (W, 1-0) - Bo-Hao Chen - Chi-Che Tsai

Monkeys: Michael Nix (L, 0-1) - Wei-Chun Weng - Ming-Hsiang Chang - Cheng-Che Wu - Po-Yu Lin

Home Runs Chun-Hsiu Chen (1), Chih-Hao Chang (1)

Chinatrust struck back easily by scoring ten in the first on the way to the win. They banged out 20 hits today. 3B Wei-Chen Wang had 3 hits and 3 RBI, 1B Chih-Sheng Lin rapped four hits and CF Chih-Hao Chang drove in four. Yi-Chung Liao got the win, while Nix gave up 8 runs in 1/3 IP.

Game 3

October 15 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (11,176)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Lamigo Monkeys	0	7	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	8	10	0
CTBC Brothers	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	4	10	1

Monkeys: Thomas Dorminy - Po-Yu Lin (H, 1) - Cheng-Che Wu (H, 1) - Tzu-Peng Huang (H, 2) - Yu-Hsun Chen (W, 1-0) - Yao-Lin Wang

Brothers: Chih-Lung Yang (L, 0-1) - Casey Harman - Chi-Che Tsai - Kai-Wen Cheng - Chung-Cheng Chiang - Ta-Yuan Kuan

Home Runs Sheng-Wei Wang 2 (2)

Yi-Cheng Wang tied Luther Hackman's 2008-2009 record with his 5th straight postseason win, allowing 4 runs in 7 1/3 IP. SS Sheng-Wei Wang homered twice for the Brothers and drove in three, but Lamigo C Hung-Yu Lin went 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBI to lead his team to victory. Lively took the loss, allowing all eight runs.

Game 4

October 16 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (11,176)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Lamigo Monkeys	0	2	2	0	4	0	1	5	1	15	15	0
CTBC Brothers	0	0	3	0	3	0	2	0	0	8	13	1

Monkeys: Thomas Dorminy (W, 1-0) - Tzu-Peng Huang - Yao-Lin Wang (S, 1)

Brothers: Mitch Lively (L, 0-1) - Bo-Hao Chen - Chia-Yen Cheng - C.C. Lee

Home Runs Chih-Hao Chang (2), Li Lin (1), Yen-Wen Kuo 2 (2), Yin-Lun Lan (1)

It was back and forth until Lamigo scored six times in the final two innings to put away the game. 2B Yen-Wen Kuo homered twice and drove in five and 3B Li Lin doubles twice, homered and drove in three. CF Chih-Hao Chang drove in five for the Brothers. Yu-Hsun Chen got the win over Chih-Lung Yang (the only one of today's 12 pitchers to pitch more than two innings).

Game 5

October 17 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (19,353)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Lamigo Monkeys	9	1	2	4	0	4	0	0	1	20	21	1
CTBC Brothers	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	9	1

Monkeys: Michael Nix (W, 1-1) - Sheng-Chin Hung - Radhames Liz

Brothers: Elih Villanueva (L, 0-1) - Bo-Hao Chen - Ta-Yuan Kuan - Chi-Che Tsai - Chia-Yen Cheng - Chung-Cheng Chiang - Kai-Wen Cheng - C.C. Lee

Home Runs Chun-Hsiu Chen (2), Li Lin 2 (3), Cheng-Fei Lin (1), Shih-Hao Liu (1)

Lamigo's lumber company again pounded away, with C Shih-Hao Liu hitting a grand slam in the first off Villanueva, who did not make it through the inning, and 3B Li Lin adding a three-run shot. Li finished 5 for 5 with 4 runs and 6 RBI, while CF Chen-Wei Chen scored four times. Nix rebounded from his game 2 disaster to allow one run in six for the easy win. CF Chih-Hao Chang again led the way for the Brothers, with three hits.

Li Lin was the Series MVP, having hit .520.