TOKYO — Maybe the Hanshin Tigers are baseball’s real evil empire.
One day after the Japanese team, which plays in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, shut out the Chicago Cubs in an exhibition at the Tokyo Dome, they did the same to the Dodgers on Sunday, winning 3-0 in the Dodgers’ final tuneup before their season-opening series here against the Cubs.
Behind a superb start from Hiroto Saiki, the Osaka-based Tigers didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning, when Max Muncy lined a single.