Tanaka poised for long-awaited 1st U.S. duel with Darvish
A pair of Japan's greatest pitching exports will finally square off in Major League Baseball on Friday.
New York Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka and Texas Rangers right-hander Yu Darvish haven't faced each other since a 2011 Pacific League contest in Nippon Professional Baseball. A year later, Darvish made the move to MLB with the Rangers, while it took Tanaka another three before he made the jump with New York.
Somehow, both pitchers have yet to face each other despite playing in the same league for four seasons. That will finally change Friday at Yankee Stadium, and Tanaka hopes those in his native land will be watching the iconic matchup.
"I think it's something that hopefully Japanese baseball fans are looking forward to," Tanaka said through an interpreter Thursday, according to the Daily News' Justin Tasch. "I just want to go out there and come up with a strong performance."
In their last meeting, Darvish narrowly outdueled Tanaka as the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters defeated the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3-1. Darvish struck out nine over nine innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits, while Tanaka allowed two earned runs on five hits while striking out four.
Darvish may have the mental edge, and is keeping cool about the contest.
"I know he's looking forward to it ... that's great. But my focus is to win the game tomorrow," Darvish told the Star-Telegram's Stefan Stevenson. "I'm facing the Yankees hitters so my focus is on them."
He added, "It's good if maybe we both pitch well and we win the game."