Havana, September 5 (RHC) - The Cuban outfielder Alfredo Despaigne connected two Homers (31 and 32) to help the SoftBank Hawks win 5-1 against the Rakuten Eagles ok n Fukuoka, Japan, in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
The Cuban hitter, who registered his 5th two-Home-Run game of the season, went 2-4 in the game and his Batting Average grew to 271, and his Home-Run and RBI totals are now at 32 and 78 respectively.
33-year old Despaigne needed less than 6 seasons in Japan to reach the 150 Home-Run milestone. In the 2017 season, with the Hawks, he was the Home-Run leader in the Pacific League with 35, and the RBI leader as well, with 103.
It was a good day for the Cuban players of SoftBank, as pitchers Livan Moinelo and Ariel Miranda, and outfielder Yurisbel Gracial also had decent performances.
Miranda permitted only one run and 3 hits in 6 innings, apart from striking out 7 rival batters, to win his 7th game of the season. Livan Moinelo retired all three batters he faced as a reliever to improve his ERA to 1.49, while Gracial went 1-4 with a single and now his Batting Average sits on 317.
