Raidel Martínez has eight saves in Japanese baseball

May 7, 2022

Cuban pitcher Raidel Martínez recorded his eighth save of the 2022 professional Japanese baseball season.

The right-handed pitcher from Pinar del Río struck out one of the three batters he faced in a perfect relief inning and improved his ERA to 0.75.

All of this happened in the game in which his Chunichi Dragons defeated the Hanshin Tigers at the Vantelin Dome in Nagoya, with a final score of 2-1.

Raidel has already worked in 12 games for an equal number of innings, allowing just four hits, 12 strikeouts recorded, one walk and a clean inning.

In today's game, also for the Dragons, Cuban right-hander Yariel Rodríguez allowed one hit without runs in a relief inning to improve his ERA to 1.26.

Matanzas native Ariel Martínez failed in a pinch-hitting appearance, lowering his average to .283.

The Dragons are in fourth place in the Central League with a record of 17-15. Leading there are the Yakult Swallows with an accumulated record of 19-13.

The other team with players contracted through the Cuban Baseball Federation, the Softbank Hawks, are in second place in the Pacific League with a record of 20-12, four games behind league-leading Rakuten Eagles.