The Cuban pitcher Liván Moinelo had a monumental performance on Tuesday in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB): nine innings without allowing a run in the 9-0 victory of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks over the Chiba Lotte Marines, marking his third win in as many starts this season.
According to the official site Cubadebate, the pitcher from Pinar del Río dominated the game from the very first pitch. He allowed only three hits, issued two walks, and struck out nine batters.
The highlight of the night was his return to the mound in the ninth inning: he entered that inning with 99 pitches and, rather than handing the game over to the bullpen, he completed the shutout with a total of 115 pitches.
The performance is even more remarkable considering the journey Moinelo took to reach it. An injury to his left shoulder sustained in May kept him out of the first part of the season and forced him to undergo a rehabilitation process that included outings in the minor leagues in late July.
His return to the first team on August 12 was immediate: six scoreless innings against the Marines in a 16-2 victory. A week later, his second outing and second victory against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (7-1).
In the 21 outings accumulated since his return, the left-hander has only allowed nine hits and a single earned run, accumulating 21 strikeouts and posting a 0.43 ERA.
Moinelo arrives at this streak following a historic 2025 season: he was named MVP of the Pacific League — the first Cuban and the first foreign player to receive this award since 2017 — with a record of 12 wins, three losses, a 1.46 ERA, and 172 strikeouts in 167 innings.
The previous year, 2024, had already made history by winning the Pacific League's effectiveness title with a 1.88 ERA over 163 innings, becoming the first Latin American to achieve it in that league.
A native of San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río, the left-hander signed with the SoftBank Hawks in May 2017 and has since risen to become one of the most dominant figures in the NPB.
Moinelo is not the only Cuban shining in Japanese baseball this season. Raidel Martínez, closer for the Yomiuri Giants, leads the Central League with 35 saves at the close of this day's games, further demonstrating the impact that players from the Island have made in the Nippon circuit.
With three victories in three outings and an almost spotless earned run average after overcoming an injury that cast doubt on his season, Moinelo confirms that the level that crowned him MVP remains intact.
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