As the Chinese Professional Baseball League regular season winds down, there is once again a change atop the second-half standings. After moving into a virtual tie with the Rakuten Monkeys for first place, the CTBC Brothers surged ahead, riding an eight-game winning streak into the top spot.

The CTBC Brothers and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions met last Thursday and Friday with just a half-game separating the two teams in the second-half standings. After the Brothers won the first game 4-2, they entered Friday looking for huge back-to-back wins over the Lions.

After the Brothers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, Song-En Tseng delivered an RBI double to extend the Brothers’ lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the third.

The Lions answered in the fourth with RBI singles from Tzu-Hao Lin and Sheng-Ping Chen to make it a 3-2 game. They took the lead in the fifth. 2024 Premier12 MVP Chieh-Hsien Chen tied it with an RBI single to center field, and Chieh-Kai Pan followed with an RBI single to left field to make it 4-3 Lions.

It remained a 4-3 game heading into the bottom of the ninth. With the Brothers down to their final out, Shr-Lun Chang delivered in the clutch with an RBI single to right field to tie the game.

The game went to extra innings. After the Brothers got a scoreless top of the 10th, they had the winning run at third with one out when Wei-Chen Wang stepped to the plate with a chance to end it. He drove the ball to left field, and Jen-Wei Chang beat the throw home to give the Brothers a 5-4 walk-off victory.

After surging into first place on the back of that eight-game winning streak, the CTBC Brothers built their lead to 2.5 games over the Monkeys and 4.5 games over the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. This set the stage for their two-game series against the Rakuten Monkeys that began Thursday.

It was the final series of the season between the teams that met in last year’s Taiwan Series. The likely path to the playoffs for both teams is to win the league’s second half.

In this week’s showdown, Game 1 featured one of the best comebacks of the entire season. The Brothers took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh before Rakuten rallied.

With two on and one out, Hung-Yu Lin stepped to the plate and delivered a three-run homer for Rakuten that just cleared the left-field fence to make it a 5-3 game and give the Monkeys life. They had just one hit coming into the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Rakuten loaded the bases with no outs thanks to back-to-back singles and a throwing error. Adam Walker followed with a sacrifice fly to the warning track to make it 5-4.

Brothers second baseman Tung-Hua Yueh then booted a slow ground ball to tie the game. The very next hitter, Hung-Yu Lin, lifted a ball to right field, and Song-En Tseng dropped it, allowing the Rakuten Monkeys to take a 6-5 lead without a throw to the plate.

Three mistakes in the field helped flip a 5-3 Brothers lead into a 6-5 deficit in a huge game for both teams. Monkeys reliever Kuan-Yu Chen struck out two in the ninth and slammed the door on a 6-5 Rakuten win.

Game 2 featured a pitching duel for the first 5 1/2 innings, with the game remaining scoreless. In the bottom of the sixth, Rakuten finally broke through. After an RBI groundout, Tzu-Wei Lin came through with a two-run single with the bases loaded to make it 3-0. Chin Cheng followed with an RBI single of his own.

Hung-Chun Yen then made it 6-0 on an RBI single and an error as the Brothers’ defense continued to struggle in the series.

The six runs were more than enough for Rakuten starter Tyler Eppler. He went eight shutout innings with four strikeouts and allowed six hits to lift Rakuten to a 6-0 victory and a sweep of the Brothers.

With a chance to take complete control of the top spot in the second half, the Brothers dropped both games to the Monkeys. They are now separated by just a half-game, with the Lions back within 2.5 games after entering Thursday trailing the Brothers by 4.5 games.

While the race to win the second half is likely going to come down to the final days of the regular season, the race for the wild-card spot will come down to the wire as well.

The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions have the slimmest of leads for the third and final playoff spot over the Fubon Guardians. After the Guardians’ strong first half at 34-26, they have struggled to a 23-29 record and sit in fifth place.

The Lions entered Friday just a half-game behind the Guardians for the final playoff spot. After the Guardians dropped a game against the TSG Hawks, the Lions had a chance to reclaim the final playoff spot with a win against the Wei Chuan Dragons.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the fourth. The Dragons loaded the bases for Chen-Hsun Lin, who doubled over the head of right fielder Hao-Wei Chang to make it 2-0 Dragons.

After being given a 2-0 lead, the CPBL’s top pitcher in 2026, John Gant, stymied the Lions’ offense. He went six shutout innings with seven strikeouts to drop his season ERA to 1.36 as he continued his push for league MVP.

It remained a 2-0 game heading into the bottom of the ninth. After back-to-back singles to open the inning, a sacrifice bunt and a walk loaded the bases with one out.

Chih-Cheng Chiu stepped to the plate for the Lions and doubled into left-center field to tie the game. Hong-Xian Lin followed with a single through the drawn-in infield to give the Lions a walk-off RBI single and a 3-2 win.

The win propelled them back into the wild-card lead by a half-game over the Guardians.

The Lions have just seven games left in the second half, while the Guardians have eight. They have two games left against each other. They will play next Wednesday night and then finish each other’s second-half slates next Sunday in what could be a win-or-go-home game.

The Lions on Monday, Oct. 5, will play a makeup game from the first half against the CTBC Brothers. The game will be relatively meaningless for the Brothers but could very well decide the postseason fate of the Lions and Guardians.

Second Half Standings
CTBC Brothers 31-23
Rakuten Monkeys 29-22
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 28-25
Wei Chuan Dragons 24-28
Fubon Guardians 23-29
TSG Hawks 22-30

Full season wild card standings
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 57-54-1
Fubon Guardians 57-55
Rakuten Monkeys 53-56-2
TSG Hawks 52-59-1
CTBC Brothers 51-60-2
Wei Chuan Dragons —*

*The Wei Chuan Dragons have already clinched a postseason berth by virtue of winning the first-half championship.