Despaigne hits his fifth home run in Japanese baseball

Havana, September 28 (RHC)-- Cuban Alfredo Despaigne on Tuesday hit his fifth home run of the season and a single in four innings and towed in three runs to lead the SoftBank Falcons to a 5-2 win over the Seibu Lions in the Japanese baseball league.

In his eighth season in Japanese baseball and his fifth in Softbank, Despaigne extended his streak of consecutive games hitting to ten and raised his average to 263 and his total number of hits to 25.

In the Falcons' victory, Cuban left-handed pitcher Liván Moinelo also saw action, who in one inning of work fanned two opponents and gave up one ticket, but allowed no hits or runs to improve his effectiveness to 0.61.

Meanwhile, in another game, Cuban Dayán Viciedo, who plays in Japan on a personal basis, added a single in four innings in the 5-2 victory of the Chunichi Dragons over the Yomiuri Giants and kept his average at 277.

His teammate Raidel Martínez allowed one run and two hits in one inning of relief to raise his effectiveness to 2.23. In the other game with Cuban presence, Rusney Castillo went 4-0 with 2 strikeouts and his average dropped to 225.

After Tuesday's games, Softbank is only half a game away from the playoff qualification zone with 52 wins and 51 losses. Rakuten with 55 and 53 appear third, behind Lotte Marinos and Orix Buffaloes.

The top three teams in each bracket qualify for the postseason.