Cuban Alfredo Despaigne hit a home run, two singles and towed four runs, to maintain his excellent pace in the final stretch of Japanese baseball, but could not avoid the defeat of the SoftBank Falcons 7-8 against the Seibu Lions.

Havana, September 30 (RHC)-- Cuban Alfredo Despaigne hit a home run, two singles and towed four runs, to maintain his excellent pace in the final stretch of Japanese baseball, but could not avoid the defeat of the SoftBank Falcons 7-8 against the Seibu Lions.

In a game played in Fukuoka, Despaigne extended his streak of consecutive games hitting to 12, increased his average to .271, his home runs to 6 and his runs batted in to 31, according to the site beisboljapones.com.

His compatriot and teammate Liván Moinelo retired in a row the 3 batters he faced in a perfect inning of relief to lower his effectiveness to .059.

Another Cuban pitcher, right-hander Raidel Martinez earned his 20th save of the year after striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced in one inning of relief in the Chunichi Dragons' 1-0 win over the Yomiuri Giants.

Cuba's Dayan Viciedo also hit 2 hits in 4 chances to raise his average to .276.

José Osuna, from Venezuela, was the most outstanding Latin player of the day, hitting 2 homers and a single in 4 innings and driving in 3 runs, but his effort was insufficient to prevent the 7-6 defeat of the Yakult Swallows against the DeNA Stars