Dayan Viciedo and Yasel Puig Stand Out in Japan's Professional Baseball League

June 1, 2022

Two of our most prominent representatives, Dayán Viciedo and Yasiel Puig, performed at a high level and maintained their excellent form in their latest outings.

In the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), the Chunichi Dragons fell 2-0 to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, but despite the shutout, Villa Clara native Dayán Viciedo made sparks fly at the plate, connecting for two hits in three at-bats, in addition to receiving a walk, continuing to elevate his stats to .262/.318/.410/.728 (AVE/OBP/SLG/OPS), increasingly closer to his true quality.

The powerful Cuban infielder reached 51 hits in 195 at-bats, with 11 doubles and six home runs as extra-base hits, 20 RBIs, 24 runs scored, 13 walks and just 25 strikeouts in 52 games and 211 plate appearances.

As for the rest of the Cubans in Japanese soil, there is not much more to highlight; the Tokyo Yakult Swallows fell 4-3 to the Chiba Lotte Marines, but neither Leonys Martín (4-0, 3K, .143/.281/.257/.538) nor Adeiny Hechavarría (2-0, 1BB, .215/.244/.282/.526) contributed to success.

Finally, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeated Yomiuri Giants 6-3, but Yurisbel Gracial went hitless in four at-bats, lowering his stats to .275/.349/.363/.712.

In Korea
Moving on to the Korean Baseball Organization League (KBO), the Kiwoom Heroes fell 4-2 to the Samsung Lions, with another great offensive performance for Cuban Yasiel Puig, who connected for two hits in four at-bats, one of them a double, and also drove in his team's first run of the game.

Puig extended to six his streak of consecutive games with a hit, and in his last 11 outings he has driven in no less than 15 runs. During that stretch, the Cienfuegos native is batting 13-for-39, for an average of .333, with eight of those hits being extra-base hits, six doubles and a pair of home runs, with the added bonus of reaching base eight times, for a grand total of 21 RBIs (CI+CA-HR), nearly two (1.91) per game.

After this strong rebound, Yasiel has raised his offensive line to .224/.321/.380/.701, and also increased his average with runners in scoring position to .279, when a few weeks ago it hovered around .200.

The last Cuban with participation in the day was José Miguel Fernández, who went 4-for-1 with one RBI in his team's 7-3 loss to the Kia Tigers. The Matanzas native reached 27 RBIs on the season and saw his numbers drop to .309/.354/.407/.761.