Cuban Despaigne hits 20th home run in Japanese baseball

GRANMA, Cuba, Aug 22 (acn) Cuban baseball player Alfredo Despaigne hit his twentieth homer of the season in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), Japanese baseball league, personal record at the tournament, and drove in three runs to help his team winning over the Seibu Lions.

According to the digital site of the tournament, Despaigne, who hit fourth with the Chiba Lotte Marines, hit the homer with two men on bases and was crucial in 8-7 win of his squad at Prince Dome stadium, attended by some 23 260 spectators.
With those three RBIs, the slugger totaled 83 and tied in the first seat of that stat, in the Pacific League, with Venezuelan Ernesto Mejía, Seibu Lions first baseman.
After the game, Despaigne, who debuted at NPB in 2014, told reporters he was very happy with the results so far, especially for the amount of home runs and RBIs, as that is his main task at the Marines.
He added that the most important thing was the victory, especially after three consecutive defeats of his side, which now appears third of its circuit with 61 wins and 51 losses, behind the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
The outstanding Cuban athlete, 30, now has a BA of .284, result of 120 hits in 423 AB, the highest among native Latin American ballplayers in the NPB so far this season.
His first homer of the season was on April 6 versus the SoftBank Hawks and the number 19th was on August 17 against the Seibu Lions.
Debutant in Cuba´s National Baseball Series (SNB by its Spanish acronym) with the squad of Granma in 2004, Despaigne´s record of home runs in Japan before this season was of 18, achieved in the previous campaign and matched last August 12 against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
The Cuban player ranks among the top five in as many offensive stats in the Pacific League.
He appears first in RBIs (83), second in runs scored (70) and third in total of bases (208), fourth in doubles (24) and fifth in home runs (20).
Alfredo Despaigne hit for .311 in his first season in NPB with 12 homers and 33 RBIs in 45 games.
In 2015, he participated in 103 games with a low BA of .258 and 18 home runs.
Before signing a contract with the Chiba Lotte Marines, he participated in 11 seasons at Cuba´s SNB, with 232 home runs.
His total of 36 home runs, achieved in 2012, is the record for a regular season in the country.