CTBC Brothers' May batting average nears historic low; Manager Hirano Keiichi to review player deployment

Central News Agency, Taipei, May 24. The CTBC Brothers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League have a batting average of only .225 so far in May, which may rewrite the team's historic low. Manager Hirano Keiichi expects players to better understand their roles in different innings, and the coaching staff will look for ways to utilize the players. The average batting average for the CTBC Brothers (including their predecessor, the Brother Elephants) in May has historically been as high as .278, long considered the team's peak hitting period. However, the team has hit a "wall" in May this year, with a current batting average of .225, just one step away from the lowest record of .233 set by the Brother Elephants in May 2000. The team has only one week left to turn the tide. Compared to the team's monthly batting average of .243 in April, the Brothers' offensive performance in May has been sluggish. Hirano Keiichi said in an interview today that this naturally directly affects the team's scoring ability. "Getting on base, getting on base, and connecting—that's how you score runs. This is the foundation. Regardless of the batting order, players are in different situations in each inning and have different roles. I hope they can understand this." Recently, the Brothers' batting performance with runners in scoring position has also been poor, with this year's average of .212 being the lowest among the 6 teams. Hirano Keiichi said, "In addition to hoping that the hitters will continue to work hard, I will also think of ways to utilize these players."