Tanaka targeting home-field gold

Former New York Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka never won a World Series, but he hopes to cap his career by striking Olympic gold when he takes the mound for his native Japan next month in Tokyo.

The 32-year-old right-hander, who joined the Yankees on a seven-year, $155 million contract in 2014, returned home to pitch for the Rakuten Golden Eagles this season. But with baseball back in the Games, his focus has been on competing for the national team.

"Despite the unforeseen postponement of the Olympics by one year, my goal was always to win the gold medal. That has not changed. We have chosen 24 people to make that happen. This is the team that will win the gold medal in Tokyo," Tanaka said after Japan's roster was announced last week.

"I am very honored to have been chosen to represent Japan. I am very honored to be selected as a member of the national team, and I am happy to be able to fight with the Japanese flag on my back again."

Tanaka posted a 78-46 record with a 3.74 ERA and 991 strikeouts in his seven seasons with the Yankees. He finished seventh in AL Cy Young voting in 2016 and made the All-Star team in 2014 and 2019.

He returned to Japan in January, signing a two-year, $17.2 million deal with the Golden Eagles.

Japan is one of six nations taking part in the Olympic tournament, along with Israel, Mexico, South Korea, the United States and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, two-way Japanese star Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels announced on Friday that he will participate in the Home Run Derby at Denver's Coors Field on July 12 as part of the MLB All-Star festivities.

Ohtani, who won the 2016 Nippon Professional Baseball Home Run Derby, is the first Japanese-born player to participate in MLB's version.

Angels manager Joe Maddon said he was fine with his two-way star competing in the event.

"I'm not as against that as others," Maddon said. "I just don't like it when it becomes never-ending. There's got to be a more finite way of doing it. It can be exhausting. But again, it's something where I would want to ask him how he felt about it. He will be honest. I don't think this is something you want to force him to do or not to do."

Heading into last weekend, Ohtani, last season's AL rookie of the year, was hitting .271 with 23 home runs and 53 RBIs in 67 games. He's also 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a 73-29 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 53.2 innings as a starting pitcher.

He was the leader among American League designated hitters in the All-Star Game balloting update released last week, and Maddon has indicated that he's OK with Ohtani pitching in the Midsummer Classic as long as it lines up with his schedule.

"It would be great," Maddon said. "It just depends on his day. It's just an inning. And I know if he's able to do it, I'd have no objections to it. His schedule has been great. The number of innings pitched, how many pitches he's thrown, I think it's in pretty good order.

"I don't see a dramatic spike between now and then. It would just be how he feels, what he thinks about it."

Ohtani ranks fifth in MLB in average home-run distance this season at 419 feet (128 meters), and his 470-foot blast on June 9 was the fifth-longest this year and the longest of his career.