Tanaka keeping Yankees in race

Masahiro Tanaka came to the rescue of the New York Yankees once again on Wednesday as the Japanese right-hander stopped his team's four-game losing skid with another brilliant outing.

Tanaka arrived in New York on a massive seven-year, $155 million deal after a 24-0 season with the Rakuten Golden Eagles and has not missed a beat in his transition to Major League Baseball.

The 25-year-old shut out the New York Mets 4-0 on a four-hitter to improve his record to 6-0 and notch his mind-boggling 34th consecutive professional win in a personal unbeaten streak covering 42 starts dating back to August 2012.

Mixing a devastating, diving split-fingered fastball with a pinpoint fastball and sharp breaking ball, Tanaka struck out eight without a walk in a masterful performance for his first complete game.

"Overall, I think today was my best game," said Tanaka.

The Yankees came into the opener of a Citi Field set of two games against the Mets after dropping the first two of their Subway Series at Yankee Stadium.

Those results put both New York teams at 19-19 and kept the Yankees a half-game back of Baltimore in the AL East.

"He's been special," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said about Tanaka. "We needed a win bad. We needed distance, bad. He did what he had to do. He really stepped up."

Tanaka became the first Yankees rookie to begin his career 6-0 as a starter since Hall of Famer Whitey Ford went 9-0 in 12 starts in 1950. He even collected his first major league hit, a single in the ninth.

The Japanese hurler began the season as the fourth man in the rotation behind CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova, perhaps to take some of the pressure off him.

Sabathia, who is now on the disabled list, and Kuroda have struggled. Nova is lost to season-ending elbow surgery and Michael Pineda is also on the DL, thrusting Tanaka into the leading-man role.

"He's been as valuable as any player on our team with what he's done," said Girardi.

Former Yankee Aaron Boone went one step further.

"I think he's an ace," Boone, now an ESPN commentator, said before the game. "I'm totally impressed with everything about him."

Tanaka has been dominant, striking out 66 against seven walks in 58 innings this season, with an earned run average of 2.17.

Fellow Yankees pitcher David Phelps said Tanaka's transition to MLB had been amazing.

"It's been seamless," said Phelps. "You could tell coming in that this was the atmosphere that he wanted to be a part of. He wanted to be a part of a big market team with rich history and that's what he got here."

(China Daily 05/16/2014 page23)