Dutch right-hander Rick van den Hurk set a new record in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). On Tuesday he struck out ten batters in eight scoreless four-hit innings to lead his Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a 2-1 victory over the Chiba Lotte Marines. He improved to 5-0 with an ERA of 1.98 in seven starts this season. Since arriving in the NPB last year the former Major Leaguer has won 14 games without losing one, breaking the record of Tsuneo Horiuchi of the Yomiuri Giants, who had started his NPB career with a 13-0 record.