HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 1 (ACN) Cuban right-hander Raidel Martinez continues to be impossible to hit, opponents do not see his Mizuno and today he scored his thirteenth save in the Chunichi Dragons’ 8-5 victory over the Hanshin Tigers in the Central Zone of the Japanese professional baseball league.
At the Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, the Cuban right-hander used his pitches sustained over 90 miles to retire the three batters he faced in a row in the ninth inning. With this new remarkable performance, his effectiveness dropped to an astronomical average of 0.88 clean runs per game.
For Chunichi, starter Dayan Viciedo, one of the Cuban players playing in the Japanese league without the sponsorship of the national federation, hit four singles in five opportunities, scored two runs and towed a teammate, to raise his average to 297.
In other results of Cuban players on this day, slugger Alfredo Despaigne went 3-0, with a pair of strikeouts and a walk, while Dariel Alvarez failed in four opportunities, in the SoftBank Falcons’ 3-6 loss against the Rakuten Eagles at the Sun Marine Stadium in Miyazaki.
In the same game, outfielder Rusney Castillo hit the first home run of his professional Japanese League debut in four innings and drove in two runs to contribute to the Eagles’ victory.
Besides, Cuba’s Leonys Martin tied the Pacific League home run lead on Tuesday by hitting his 23rd homer of the year and driving in three runs in the Lotte Marinos’ 5-1 win over the Seibu Lions at Chiba’s ZOZO Marine Stadium. He raised his average to 254 and his total number of runs batted in to 62, a figure that allows him to retake the first position in that department among Latin players.
His compatriot and teammate, the shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, only played defensively, so his average remains at 212.
