Livan Moinelo

Havana, Jun 26 (RHC) – Cuban pitcher Liván Moinelo, of the SoftBank Hawks, set a record of 37 strikeouts in the games between the teams of the two zones of the Japanese Professional Baseball League.

In the Japanese competition, teams compete in the Central and Pacific sections, and their respective winning clubs play for the Japan Series at the end of each one.

But in the month of June there is also a calendar in which the teams of both leagues play against each other. And since the current 18-game format was adopted in 2015, no pitcher had ever struck out a whopping 37 times.

That was achieved by the left-hander from Pinar del Río in three starts, in which he also signed a win without defeat, and an effectiveness of 0.78 pitches.

This Friday, Moinelo will try to get his seventh win of the regular season when he visits the ZOZO Marine Stadium in Chiba, where he will face the Lotte Marinos.

A solid outing will then allow him to once again compete for the Most Valuable Pitcher of the Month award, which he narrowly lost in May to Seibu Lions right-hander Tatsuya Imai.

After shining as a reliever during his first seven seasons with the Fukuoka outfit, he took over as a starter last year and immediately led the Pacific League in strikeout rate with 1.88. He was also a candidate for the Sawamura Award.

Nothing has changed so far in 2025, as his record after his first 12 starts in the current campaign is 6-0 and his ERA stands at 1.28, which is the third best record in his circuit. He is also second in strikeouts (95) and quality starts (10).

Source: JIT