Cuban relievers remain on fire in Japanese baseball

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 13 (ACN) Cuban relievers Raidel Martinez and Livan Moinelo continued today with their strikeouts recital and were key figures in the triumph of their respective clubs in the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NPB).

Closer Martinez scored his nineteenth save of the year after striking out the three batters he faced in the ninth inning, in the 4-2 home victory of the Chunichi Dragons over the Hanshin Tigers, for the NPB Central League; thus reducing his ERA to 1.18.
In that same game, his compatriot and teammate Dayan Viciedo hit 2 for 4 and drove in two runs. Thus, the powerful first baseman raised his batting average (BA) to .265 and RBIs to 72.
Meanwhile, setup man Moinelo struck out two of the three rivals he faced in the eighth inning to sustain the 2-0 home win of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks over the Orix Buffaloes, in the Pacific League; and his ERA dropped to 1.21.
His compatriot and teammate, OF Yurisbel Gracial, went 1 for 4 and lowered his BA to .263.
Finally, Leonys Martin batted 1 for 4 and drove in a run in the 4-3 home win of his side, the Chiba Lotte Marines over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
OF Martin, who had not produced runs since Sept. 30, dropped his BA to .243 and increased his RBIs total to 63.