Raidel Martínez

Havana, Mar 31 (JIT) - Cuban pitcher Raidel Martinez has already begun to steal the headlines in the Japanese Professional Baseball League 2025, which has barely concluded a sub-series.

This is due to the fact that the lanky right-hander from Pinar del Río, with deliveries that reached 95 miles per hour, participated in two of the three wins that his new club, the Yomiuri Giants, gave Yakult in the Central League.

The websites comment that Martinez, who has been by far the best closer in Japan in the last three years, did not have the opportunity to save the first day, but he did pitch a zero in relief and ended up getting his first win of the season.

In addition, in the third game he was able to earn his first save of the year, which was the job for which he was signed with a four-year contract. He pitched one inning and has now gone two innings without allowing any runs and has accepted only one hit.

With that save, the speedy right-hander reached 167 lifetime in that Asian league and this places him in 15th place in that department in the history of the circuit.

At only 28 years of age, experts believe that it would not be unreasonable to think that he could reach 300 in his career, which would place him as the second best of all time.