Yen-Ching Lu

Yen-Ching Lu (呂彥青)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 143 lb.
• School National Taiwan University of Physical Education and Sport
• High School Sanmin Senior High School

• Born March 10, 1996 in Kaohsiung City Taiwan

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Biographical Information

Yen-Ching Lu is a pitcher of the Chinese Professional Baseball League and Chinese Taipei national team.

Lu was slated to play for Taiwan in the 2013 World Junior Championship but was scratched from the roster due to injury. He was 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA in the 2015 Universiade as Taiwan went unbeaten; only Shih-Ying Peng had a higher ERA for Taiwan. In the 2015 World Port Tournament, he led Taiwan in games pitched (4) and ERA (1.12) but lost his lone decision, to Cuba. For the tourney, he tied Loek van Mil for 3rd in ERA (behind Ryotaro Tamura and Frank Montieth), tied Alberto Bicet for 9th in strikeouts (6) and tied for second in games pitched (one behind Miguel Lahera).

The Kaohsiung native pitched in the 2015 Asian Championship. In the opener, he was the second of seven hurlers in a loss to eventual champion South Korea, giving up 4 hits, a walk, a hit batsman and two runs i n3 2/3 IP while fanning five; he relieved Tsung-Hao Wang in the 2nd and was succeeded by Shih-Ying Peng. He took the loss but had a better ERA than three of the other Taiwanese hurlers in a 8-2 defeat. In Taiwan's last game, he got the call against defending champ Japan to determine who would finish second. He did a superb job, tossing six shutout frames (5 H, 2 BB, 4 K) before Ping-Hsueh Chen relieved but got a no-decision in a 3-1 Taiwanese win. Lu led the Silver Medalists in both innings pitched and strikeouts (two more than Ming-Hsuan Chen).

The little left-hander was Taiwan's youngest player in the 2015 Premier 12 (Tzu-Wei Lin was 20). The 19-year-old only pitched to two batters, both in an exciting 9-8 loss to Team Canada. Relieving former major leaguer Fu-Te Ni in the 4th with a 4-2 deficit, a men on second and two outs, he retired Rene Tosoni. He walked Brock Kjeldgaard to open the 5th and was relieved by Tzu-Wei Lin. Lu then played in the Asian Winter League and appeared in the 2016 Haarlem Baseball Week and 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup.

In the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he was part of the designated pitcher pool for Taiwan but was not activated. He was with Taiwan for the 2017 Asian Championship and did not pitch in the round-robin. In the Gold Medal Game, he got the starting nod against Japan. He pitched four shutout innings to match Daiki Tajima but struggled in the 5th and was relieved by Sheng-Feng Wu with two outs. He was charged with 4 hits, 3 walks, a homer (to Shoji Kitamura) and 4 runs (3 earned) while striking out six in the loss. Lu was signed by the Hanshin Tigers as a developmental squad player in 2017. Among 3 years in Japan, Lu was 4-14 with 4.18 ERA in EL; he did not make it to the Central League. The Tigers released him in the 2020 offseason.

After returning to Taiwan, Lu was picked by the CTBC Brothers with the 3rd overall pick in 2021 CPBL Draft. In his first year, Lu was 2-3 with 4.60 ERA in 11 starting game. Not a bad performance for a local starter. In 2022, because the original closer C.C. Lee is 36 years old, the Brothers thought they need a new closer, and put their eyes on Lu. He was near-perfect since becoming closer, as he notched 20 saves and only blown save 2 times with an insane 1.98 ERA. He set a team record with 24 consecutive games without any earned runs.

Lu made Taiwan's roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He relieved Yu-Hsun Chen in the 6th inning against Italy, and he picked off David Fletcher to end this inning. Lu then retired Vinnie Pasquantino and struck out Dominic Fletcher, but he gave up walks to Brett Sullivan and Vito Friscia. Lu forced Nicky Lopez to ground out to escape the jam, and he fanned Ben DeLuzio in the next inning. After retiring Miles Mastrobuoni, Lu walked Sal Frelick then Chia-Hao Sung replaced him. Thanks to Kuo-Chen Fan's clutch game-winning RBI infield single in the 7th inning, Lu got the win.

On May 19, 2023, Lu ,Hao-Chun Cheng, Jung-Hao Hsieh and Chun-Wei Wu completed the first combined no-hitter in the CPBL history. Lu collected a league-leading 22 saves with a 3.84 ERA in 54 games in 2023. He also attended the 2023 CPBL All-Star Game, and he pitched a shutout inning.

Lu has a slider and a peak 94 mph fastball. He also throws a curve and a changeup sometimes.

Sources

• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• 2015 Universiade
• 2015 World Port Tournament
• Asia Baseball Federation
• World Baseball and Softball Confederation
• Taiwanese Baseball Association
• CPBL.com