Yurisbel Gracial is unstoppable in professional baseball in Japan

April 26, 2021

The Cuban Yurisbel Gracial hit his fourth home run of the tournament on Sunday but his performance was insufficient to prevent the defeat of SoftBank Hawks 5-8 against Lotte Marinos in professional baseball in Japan.

At the ZOZO Marine stadium in Chiba, the player from Matanzas hit a home run, drove in one run and scored another, to maintain himself as the batting leader with an average of .365 and in hits connected with 35 in the Pacific League.

Also Cuban Alfredo Despaigne, went with a hit in four at-bats, specifically a double, received a base on balls and scored one run for the SoftBank cause, although his average is just .208.

For the defeated team, the outfielder from the Cuban province of Villa Clara, Leonys Martín, hit two hits, of which a double, with one run scored to leave his average at .275.

With his run scored Martín ranks third in that category in his circuit, in which he is second in RBIs with 21 and is leading in home runs with eight.

For his part, at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, his countryman Dayán Viciedo went 4-1 with a double and one RBI but did not prevent the defeat of his Chunichi Dragons team 3-4 against the Yakult Swallows.

Viciedo, also from Villa Clara, finished his performance with an average of .266, while Venezuelan José Osuna, for the Swallows, hit a solo home run for his team's cause.

Also Venezuelan Robert Suárez, stood out in the game by earning his sixth save of the competition, after shutting out the DeNa Stars in one inning and guaranteeing the victory of the Hanshin Tigers 7-5.

Suárez, who allowed one hit, struck out one opponent of the four he faced and left his earned run average at 0.90 to place third in that category in the Central League.

Precisely, with their victory the Hanshin Tigers lead that zone with 18 games won and seven lost, ahead of the Yakult Swallows (13-8-4) and the Yomiuri Giants (14-9-4), their closest followers.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific League the champion SoftBank Hawks lead with 14 wins, nine losses and three ties, ahead of Rakuten (13-9-4) and the Lotte Marinos (13-10-4).