Havana, August 15 (RHC) – Cuban Raidel Martinez earned his 31st save of the season on Friday, in the Yomiuri Giants’ 1-0 victory over the Chunichi Dragons in the Japanese Professional Baseball League.
The tournament website reports that at the Vantelin Dome in Nagoya, in the Central League, the lanky right-hander from Pinar del RÃo struck out two of the three batters he faced as the team’s closer.
Raidel, who notched his second consecutive save, lowered his ERA to 1.67 and extended his lead in saves across the entire league.
The closest competitor is Rikuto Yokoyama (28), a reliever for the Lotte Marines in the Pacific League.
So far, the speedy right-hander from Pinar del RÃo has appeared in 40 games, pitching 37.2 innings with an excellent record of 43 strikeouts, eight walks, and only seven earned runs allowed.
He has given up 23 hits, including two home runs.
Last season, Raidel set a personal record of 46 games saved, a similar number to that achieved by Shinya Matsuyama (Chunichi Dragons), which allowed both of them to join the historical record holders of the Central League: Hitomi Iwase (2005) and Kyuji Fujikawa (2007).
