Baseball: Watanabe, Murakami lead Tigers to rout of Dragons

Ryo Watanabe homered and drove in three runs to back a seven-inning shutout performance from Shoki Murakami as the Hanshin Tigers trounced the Chunichi Dragons 8-0 on Thursday.

Watanabe pushed the Tigers’ lead to 5-0 with a two-run homer in the fifth inning before the utility player, who joined the Tigers last October from the Nippon Ham Fighters, added an RBI double in the seventh as part of a 3-for-4 night at Koshien Stadium.

Takumu Nakano also led the offense with four singles, scoring four times for the Central League-leading Tigers, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead through the first three inn...