Liván Moinelo

Tokyo, Nov 12 (RHC) Cuban pitcher Liván Moinelo won today his first glove in Japan's professional baseball, being recognized as the best defender of his position by the local chroniclers.

In a close battle, the left-handed pitcher, a native of Pinar del Río and member of the Softbank Falcons of the Pacific League, beat Kazuma Ojima of the Lotte Marinos and Hiromi Ito of the Nippon Ham Wrestlers, who received 54 ballots, by just one vote.

With this award, Moinelo becomes the first Latino to win such distinction in the Japanese League, since his compatriot and starter Dayán Viciedo did it in the Central League in the 2021 season.

The pitcher was also the most effective in his circuit during the regular campaign, allowing only 1.88 clean runs per complete game and taking over a leadership that no Latin American-born player had ever been able to obtain in the history of baseball in Japan.

In his first game as a starter after seven seasons as a reliever, he was fourth in wins with 11 and in strikeouts with 155 in 163 innings of work.

According to Cuba's team manager, Armando Johnson, he is scheduled to take the mound this Thursday against South Korea, in the second game of his national team's group B in the Premier 12 tournament that begins tomorrow in Taiwan.

Source: Prensa Latina