Tigers second open sen game

Is it possible to get box scores for these games. I follow Matt Murton and would love to know how he does.

It is on the day and after as the Tigers site does do box scores for open sen. However, these are not saved so if you miss them they are gone. To get the scores yourself, go to the Tigers website (in Japanese) - when you access the front page you will see the game score. Click on this and it will take you to the innings scores. Then click on this tab テープルスコア. This will take you to the box scores - for the full season game scores will be saved on the website and easy to find. Just go to the schedule and click on the score. It is organised by month. At the moment Murton is batting No.1 and fielding centre. In Japanese his name is マートン. For yesterday's game Murton had three at bats, no hits and no runs scored. His at bats were first innings, strike out swinging, third innings short ground out, sixth innings, second ground out. I hope this helps.

I never thought of Matt as a No. 1 (lead off) hitter. Do the Japanese have different baseball strategy as far as the batting line up is concerned or do they feel Matt is a good No. 1 hitter? I did read the post that in Japan homeruns are not as valued as other performances. I need to learn Japanese baseball. Appreciate your blog, thanks.

Not sure where they will bat Murton. It's just the beginning of the pre-season, so probably just experimenting. The Tigers lead-off hitter suddenly retired for health reasons in the off-season, so they are a bit desperate now.

Murton is intended partially to provide cover for Brazell if he gets injured which could see him batting six. Mayumi, though, is known to like power in the No. 1 slot and Murton's plate discipline is attractive for a No. 1 in Japan. One thing is he will not be expected to steal like Akahoshi.

Hello,
Love the blog, it keeps me up to date when I can't stay up till 6 a.m. PST to watch a full game. But I was just hoping if you could help me find a schedule for the 2010 Tigers schedule or atleast tell me when the Tigers have their season opener (also what time would be helpful to?
Thank You,
Keep up the good work!

Many thanks - for Tigers schedules the Tigers website (in Japanese) has the details. However, the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) site has the schedules in English. Click on the tiny English button in the top left hand corner and then the Tigers logo. Everything is then self explanatory. The Tigers season opener will be on 26th March at 6.00pm (Japan Time) against Yokohama BayStars.

Who are the Tigers to watch this year and what position do they play? Can they contend for the championship? I saw last year they had a losing record. Realistically, do they have the talent to compete against the best teams?

Tigers to watch are Futagami (Tigers No. 1 draft pick 2009) who at the moment looks like he will make the rotation but you never know with our coaches. Johjima, our new catcher, Toritani, the shortstop and Craig Brazell. I will be doing a pre-season assessment in more depth in the next week or two which will go into Tigers chances and where I think they'll finish.

Is Asai healthy? He did a good job of covering for Akahoshi last year, but then he got hurt as well.

Yes Asai is fully recovered and picked up a good camp evaluation. Murton though is likely to be the starting centre fielder.