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Hanshin gets to Yamaguchi, beats Giants

The Yomiuri Giants are playing Joba Chamberlain with Tetsuya Yamaguchi, and Hanshin’s Craig Brazell took advantage of the left-hander as the Tigers scrapped past the Central League leaders 3-2 on Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.
Yamaguchi (1-1), who was taken from the pen this spring and thrust into the rotation, made his first appearance out of the bullpen this season and got just one out.
After he loaded the bases, Brazell reached at a breaking ball and pulled a floating base hit into right field to score two in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give the Tigers the lead.
Yamaguchi, who was 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA in his two starts, faced five batters and allowed three hits and plunked Kenji Jojima.
Just like the New York Yankees hard-throwing righty Chamberlain, the Giants are suddenly second-guessing themselves on how to use Yamaguchi, who has 60 holds since 2007.
It was the fourth straight win for the Tigers, who got a quality start from offseason pickup Yasutomo Kubo (2-1), who limited the Giants to a run on five hits and two walks over seven innings. Kyuji Fujikawa worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.

CARP 6, SWALLOWS 2
Pinch-hitter Justin Huber’s solo blast got Hiroshima even and an on Yasushi Ihara’s error as the Carp beat Yakult for a second straight win at the Zoom.

BAYSTARS 9, DRAGONS 4
Terrmel Sledge slugged a pair of homers and drove in four runs as Yokohama battered Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

BUFFALOES 10, HAWKS 8
A slugfest came down to an error. So Taguchi singled to lead off the eighth inning and Brian Falkenborg (1-1) threw a bounce pass to first base on Shogo Akada’s bunt for an error that allowed the go-ahead run to score from first as Orix beat SoftBank at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Greg LaRocca, despite a broken finger, homered as did Takeshi Hidaka, Keiji Obiki and Takahiro Okada, his third in as many games.

MARINES 6, FIGHTERS 1
Fourth-year righty Yuta Omine (2-0) fired a 155-pitch complete game -- his second straight -- and Lotte won to go nine games over .500 for the first time in three seasons.
Omine gave up just three hits while walking six and fanning four.

LIONS 6, EAGLES 5
Dee Brown’s two-run single in the fourth inning put Seibu ahead, and a trio of relievers kept Rakuten scoreless the final three innings as the Lions won at Seibu Dome.