Lions Coach Laments Batting Slump, Nearly Mentions Former Star Lin An-ko

(CNA, Taipei, May 21) The Uni-President Lions have been in a batting slump since the start of the season, with head coach Lin Yueh-ping admitting that some players have failed to deliver expected results. However, he is counting on in-form players to step up. When giving examples, besides mentioning Chen Chieh-hsien and Su Chih-chieh, he had a slip of the tongue and almost blurted out "Lin An-ko." The Uni-President 7-ELEVEn Lions' team batting average so far this season is .237, which is only better than the Rakuten Monkeys' .227 among the six teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Before today's game, head coach Lin Yueh-ping said in an interview that the team's overall energy is not too bad. Although Chiu Chih-cheng and Pan Chieh-kai have yet to perform as expected, "the offense isn't very active, so we have to rely on Chieh-hsien, Chih-chieh, An... those who are in good form recently to make up for it." The name Lin almost said was Lin An-ko, who transferred to the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball this year. The Lions lost to the Fubon Guardians 2-9 yesterday. Starting pitcher Denyi Reyes's 7 runs (5 earned) in 6 innings was unusual, as he had only given up 3 runs in his previous 4 starts. Lin also believes the Guardians' batters had effectively set up their approach against his pitching patterns and attacked the first pitch. "Fubon's recent hitting is a threat to us opponents," he said.