Baseball: Murakami, Tigers crush Yamamoto in Japan Series opener

Hanshin Tigers rookie Shoki Murakami outpitched Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, leading the Central League champs to an 8-0 Japan Series Game 1 victory Saturday.Murakami allowed just two hits over seven innings at Kyocera Dome Osaka, where Game 2 will be played Sunday before the series moves on to Hanshin's Koshien Stadium in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture for Tuesday for the next three games of the best-of-seven series."I felt a good kind of nerves. I was able to turn it to my advantage," Murakami said. "From the start, my focus was on maintaining a good tempo. When we got a big lead,…READ FULL ARTICLE