Japanese Pitcher (20-0) Is Set for a Major Move SENDAI, Japan - Coming into the season, Masahiro Tanaka, the ace of the Pacific League's Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, had a fairly impressive résumé. But it has now reached nearly unthinkable proportions. The 24-year-old Tanaka pushed his record to 20-0 last Friday with a 3-2 complete game victory over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at the Eagles" stadium in Sendai. Dating to last season, Tanaka has 24 consecutive wins, a streak that matches the major league mark in the United States set by the New York Giants" Carl Hubbell in 1936-37. Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers created a stir this season by winning his first 13 decisions, and now has an eye-popping 19-3 record. But Tanaka has remained one step ahead. His latest victory got a big assist from Kazuo Matsui, a former Mets infielder, whose home run broke a 2-2 tie. Tanaka did the rest, and after recording the final out on a called third strike, he emphatically pumped his fist toward third base as the home crowd of 22,316 roared. "It was a true team effort," Tanaka said. In the future, I'll do my best to continue. It is his future that is now the source of considerable interest. It may take him to North America, perhaps as early as next season. News media outlets in Japan are suggesting that Tanaka will request the Eagles put him up for auction via the posting system later this year. Such a move will make him the most sought-after Japanese export since Yu Darvish, one of baseball's best pitchers, and a member of the Texas Rangers for the last two seasons. Still, any discussion of how well Tanaka might do in the major leagues inevitably summons all the difficulties that Daisuke Matsuzaka encountered after his first two seasons with the Boston Red Sox. "Some people would say that he's not quite Darvish, but he might have a bit more extended success than Matsuzaka," said a major league scout who has seen Tanaka pitch multiple times and requested anonymity because he did not have permission from his parent club to speak publicly about a player he was evaluating. In his second season with the Rangers, Darvish leads the major leagues in strikeouts. As for Matsuzaka, he helped the Red Sox win a World Series in his first season in Boston, in 2007, and went 18-3 in 2008, but since then has struggled with injuries and his command. He spent most of this season in the minor leagues before being picked up by the Mets on a short-term deal. For now, Tanaka is excelling in Japan. Over 23 starts this season, Tanaka, a 6-foot-2 right-hander with a fastball that touches about 95 miles per hour, a sharp-breaking slider and a split-finger fastball, has compiled an earned run average of 1.24 while striking out 155 batters over 181 innings. This will probably be the third consecutive season his E.R.A. will end up below 2.00, and beyond that, he also had a streak of 42 scoreless innings this year. "I've always liked his slider, but his split-finger has really come on in the last couple of seasons," the scout said. He definitely has enough velocity to play at the major league level, and the other two pitches would compete for sure. Tanaka is also adept at extricating himself from jams. Teams were hitting a league-low .147 against him with runners in scoring position going into Friday's game, which ended with the tying run on third. Even more remarkable is that Tanaka is excelling during a season in which pitchers are at something of a disadvantage in Japan. Since the start of the season, rumors circulated that the Japanese teams were using a juiced ball. In June, the commissioner, Ryozo Kato, admitted that a ball of different specifications had been secretly put into play in an effort to induce more home runs, which had dropped significantly after a ball roughly matching that used in international play was introduced after 2010. Ira Stevens, the founder of ScoutDragon.com, an online database of Japanese baseball that is used by major league teams and scouts, said the dead ball, short as its life span was, had helped Tanaka learn how "to really pitch.""With the dead ball, Tanaka started going after batters," Stevens said. He didn't fool around anymore. And now, with the lively ball, Stevens said, Tanaka is still taking the same aggressive approach. "It doesn't matter if his strikeouts are down, it's how he's pitching," Stevens said. He's dominating. Tanaka will turn 25 on Nov. 1. Before entering Rakuten's rotation at 18 in 2007, he pitched for Komazawa University Tomakomai High School. For potential suitors, there is the risk that his best innings are behind him because high schools in Japan are known for putting pitchers through grueling regimens. As an example, during the popular two-week Koshien high-school baseball tournament in 2006, Tanaka threw 742 pitches over six appearances. That exceeded the 643 pitches thrown by Matsuzaka eight years before. "For every Japanese player, high school experience is an issue," Stevens said. Major league teams are aware that guys have overthrown. Yozo Tachibana, Rakuten's team president, told Kyodo News this month that he had asked Tanaka, who is under contract for two more years, to stay with the club for the 2014 season. Tachibana also acknowledged that Tanaka had previously mentioned his intention to move to the major leagues. The Golden Eagles are in first place, with a five-game lead, in the Pacific League through Tuesday's games. A pennant would be the first in the nine-year history of the team, which is owned by the Internet shopping mall Rakuten. The area around the city of Sendai was ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku area in 2011. If this is indeed the last season in Sendai for Tanaka, a victory in this year's Japan Series would certainly make his leaving less painful. "What I really want is a championship," Tanaka said. After that, North America could beckon. Perhaps in time for the 2014 season.