Masahiro Tanaka tossed three-run ball over seven innings en route to winning his fifth straight start Wednesday as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 7-3.
Tanaka (5-0) scattered eight hits, struck out one and walked two. With the win, Rakuten regained a share of first place with Nippon Ham in the Pacific League and improved to 1-1 in the three-game set at Kleenex Stadium.
Motohiro Shima had an opposite field double to lead off the third and Ryo Hijirisawa's infield single put runners at first and second before Naoto Watanabe walked to load the bases with none out.