By Juan Páez
Alfredo Despaigne is taking advantage of the last part of the regular round to vindicate himself for his poor season with the wood in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB, its acronym in English). The great Cuban slugger is unstitching the ball in the last games of this season, something he did again on the day this Thursday despite the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 8 × 7 defeat over Saitama Seibu Lions.
The top Cuban home runner in NPB history (166) had three hits in five legal at-bats, including a home run (6). He also drove in four runs to reach 31 on the year and scored once. Their global averages were .271 / .374 / .414.
Despaigne is literally killing the league in his last few games. He has 13 straight games with at least one hit, a period in which he has 22 hits in 43 legal at-bats, with four homers, 15 RBIs, six runs scored and an average of .512.
In the same challenge, but from the mound, his partner Liván Moinelo shone again. To score his 14th hold of the year, the talented Cuban southpaw used 13 pitches to withdraw the eighth inning of the engagement. His ERA decreased to 0.59.
UNSTOPPABLE
Raidel Martínez needed to be perfect for the Chunichi Dragons 1 × 0 victory over the Yomiuri Giants. And that was precisely what he did. The young right-hander threw a perfect 1.0 inning and struck out two of the three batters facing each other. His ERA was reduced to 2.18.
This was Martinez’s 20th save of the year, the fifth-most in the Central League in 2021. In 41.1 total innings, he has allowed just 24 hits and 10 earned runs, with just eight walks and 50 strikeouts. His WHIP is 0.77.
Teammate Dayán Viciedo doubled with a pair of singles in four boxing starts (.276 / .337 / .439).
Lastly in Japan, Adeiny Hechavarría went 1-for-4 and left his line at .179 / .208 / .307, in the Chiba Lotte Marines 4 × 3 loss to Buffaloes Orix.
Going into action at the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), José Miguel Fernández finished 4-1, with a passport (.320 / .397 / .463).
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