By Juan Páez
There are good reasons to think that Ariel Miranda is in the midst of the best season of his career as a professional baseball player. In his first year at the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), the Cuban southpaw is shining brightly. And this Thursday’s session was no exception.
Miranda faced the Lotte Giants and, although he went without a decision in the defeat of the Doosan Bears 7 × 2, returned to having a dominant performance. In his 25th appearance of the season (all as a starter), the sinister threw 6.0 innings of eight hits, one earned run, one walk and 10 strikeouts. With such a number of fans, he surpassed 200 and was 204 with his last guillotine of the engagement.
After such starts and 156.1 innings pitched, Ariel is 13-5 with a 2.30 ERA, the best in the championship. He has allowed 121 indisputable (11 home runs) and 40 earned runs, with 53 walks, 204 strikeouts and 19 quality starts. At this point in the regular round, he has a 1.11 WHIP and opponents are hitting .211.
Aside from the ERA lead, Miranda is also first in strikeouts and holds a wide lead with second. His closest escort has 158 fans, 46 fewer fans than the Cuban.
In the double run for the Doosan Bears, José Miguel Fernández had an aggregate performance of 5-1, with an RBI (72) and left his offensive line at .315 / .391 / .451.
LOOKING TOWARDS JAPAN
Dayán Viciedo continues to see the ball without problems and this time he got a couple of singles in four legal at-bats, including an RBI (68) (.281 / .340 / .444), in the Chunichi Dragons 5 × 2 fall against him Hiroshima Toyo Carps as part of the action in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). His teammate Ariel Martínez was unlucky in a valid pinch-hitting chance (.213 / .314 / .262).
Alfredo Despaigne hit a three-of-a-kind legal hitting single and walked (.251 / .356 / .390) in the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 7-0 loss to the Saitama Seibu Lions.
Finally, Adeiny Hechavarría was a starting shortstop and went 3-1 (.197 / .223 / .331) in the backhand suffered by the Chiba Lotte Marines 3 × 2 against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. His teammate Leonys Martín had a day to forget, with four strikeouts in his four official at-bats (.249 / .372 / .540).
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