Is there a way to merge two cells in column using google appscript in Google Docs?

I was searching for a way to provide merge of two cells in a column. There is a way to merge it in a row with cell object and merge method, something like this:

var cells = [
   [
      'Row 1, Cell 1',
      'Row 1, Cell 2',
   ],
   [
      'Row 2, Cell 1',
      'Row 2, Cell 2'
   ]
];

// Build a table from the array.
var table = body.appendTable(cells);
var row = table.getRow(0);
var cell = row.getCell(1);
cell.merge();

So this is the result of the code above:

However what I want to achieve is this kind of merge:

Is it possible? There is such in functionality in UI, but can’t find it in API.