Cuban Despaigne raises offensive average in Japanese baseball league

Havana, August 12 (RHC)-- Cuban Alfredo Despaigne batted 3-1 in his team Softbank Falcons' 4-3 victory over Lotte Marinos and his offensive average rose to .250.

The West Indian slugger recorded his sixth double of the season, a strikeout and a walk, which continued with six homers, 12 runs batted in, 14 hits, 14 walks, .457 slugging and 321 OBP (on-base percentage).

On the other side, Cuban Leonys Martín also hit his ninth home run in four visits to the plate and drove in two runs at Zozo Marine Stadium in Chiba.

Softbank (52-45) was stuck at the halfway point in the Pacific League of the Seibu Lions (55-47), who lost 2-3 at the Sapporo Dome to the Nippon Ham Fighters, last in the standings at 12 runs.

In another game of the day, the Yomiuri Giants triumphed 6-1 over the Chunichi Dragons, a team with which the Cubans Dayán Viciedo and Pedro Revilla went 4-0 to lower their averages to .281 and .267, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Hiroshima Carp were 6-3 against the Yakult Swallows, the DeNA All-Stars were 4-1 against the Hanshin Tigers, while the Orix Buffaloes swept the Rakuten Eagles 6-1.

The Swallows (59-42) comfortably lead the Central League, with the Stars (49-46) a full seven games behind and the Tigers (52-52) in third place, 8.5 games behind.)