Masahiro Tanaka improved to 16-0, a Nippon Professional Baseball record, with seven shutout innings on Friday in the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' 5-0 win over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.
By winning his first 16 decisions of the season, Tanaka surpassed the record he shared with two other pitchers. The right-hander, who is a good candidate to be playing in the major leagues next season, allowed four hits and struck out eight batters without issuing a walk before a packed house at Kleenex Stadium. Tanaka has now won his last nine starts.
"I'm really happy," he said. "Today I went to the mound as I always do, intending to win the game. I gave up some extra-base hits, so I had to dig deep, but I managed to get out of trouble."