By Juan Páez
Several Cuban players played a leading role between Korea and Japan on Saturday’s matchday. Starting with the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), Odrisamer Despaigne showed that he wants to end the regular season in style. In the crushing KT Wiz 11 × 2 win over Hanhwa Eagles, the Antillean right had a hard work performance, but with the reward of his twelfth win of the campaign.
Despaigne was in the nose for 7.2 episodes, his longest outing of the harvest. In his work, he allowed six hits and two earned runs, with two walks and seven strikeouts. To complete his job, he required 127 pitches, a pretty high mark considering that his average number of pitches per start prior to this start was 102.
Although he has fewer innings than last year (176.2 vs. 207.2 innings released in 2020), Odrisamer already has more strikeouts (160 vs. 152) and should finish the season with a better ERA than in 2020 (currently, he’s at 3.36, while last year it registered 4.33).
Lastly in Korea, José Miguel Fernández had three hits in five at-bats in the Doosan Bears 6 × 4 loss to the Kia Tigers. His performance included his 23rd double of the tournament and a career scored. Thus he left his frequencies at .317 / .392 / .450.
GOOD DEAL IN JAPAN
Moving on to what happened in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB, its acronym in English), Alfredo Despaigne had an important offensive performance in the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 10 × 4 victory over Chiba Lotte Marines, a match that had three Cubans in action.
Despaigne hit 3-2, with a double (13) and a home run (8). He also drove in a couple of runs (to reach 35 in the harvest), took a walk, scored once and downed a chocolate (.256 / .372 / .415). It was his second homer in his last six games.
In that same match, but for Chiba, Adeiny Hechavarría released a couple of singles in a trio of going to the box, a performance with which he parked his frequencies at .212 / .232 / .333. His teammate Leonys Martín continues in the doldrums with the wood in his last challenges and left blank four official opportunities, including a strikeout (.236 / .360 / .505).
In the other match of the day that had Cuban participation, the victory of Chunichi Dragons 5 × 3 over Tokyo Yakult Swallows, there were four islanders in play and two of them were protagonists. Yariel Rodríguez and Raidel Martínez played a starring role from the mound.
Rodríguez was the starter and finally got his first win of the season (1-4), in 5.0 innings of seven hits, three earned runs, with four walks, three strikeouts and a home run allowed (3.65 ERA). As for Martínez, the Antillean right-hander saved his 23rd game of the season, in a 1.0 perfect episode, including fanning (2.11 PCL).
On the offense for Chunichi, Dayán Viciedo finished 5-1, with two key RBIs for his club (to reach 70 in 2021) (.276 / .334 / .435). Teammate Ariel Martinez came out as a pinch hitter and walked in his only appearance (.254 / .346 / .338).
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