Getting Buff …

Buffaloes outlast Marines for 3rd straight win

Everything was set up perfectly for Orix to turn into the Buffa-lows instead of the Buffaloes. But veterans Makoto Yoshino and Yusuke Kajimoto saved the day -- after the home team had blown its three-run lead at Kyocera Dome.

Yoshino (2-0) entered in the sixth inning to save starter Shingo Nakayama from getting knocked around for a game-breaking rally, and Kajimoto came up in the bottom of the inning to double home the tiebreaking run in a 7-5 win on Wednesday night.

Yoshino, in his 13th season, hadn’t won a game since May 20, 2008 [his first year with Orix] before picking up a victory on Tuesday. Now he has two wins in as many days and the Buffaloes have their longest winning streak of the season -- three -- after working a scoreless inning.

Kajimoto, an 11th-year player who hadn’t had three hits in a game since Oct. 6, 2010 [as a member of the Yakult Swallows], plated Hirotoshi Kitagawa with a two-out double for a 5-4 lead.

Aarom Baldiris and Takayoshi Kawabata added RBI singles in the seventh, and Mamoru Kishida surrendered a run and put the go-ahead runners on second and third before getting a check-swing strikeout to escape embarrassment and end the game and get his sixth save.

Kajimoto, who was called up from the farm earlier in the day, said his knees weren’t knocking in the sixth as much as they were during the hero interview.

“I’m nervous; I’m not used to it at all. My apologies,” Kajimoto said to the crowd during the on-field interview.

“We had a good chance to score, so I just wanted to be aggressive.”

EAGLES 12, LIONS 2

Kazuo Matsui homered and drove in two as Rakuten broke loose for 19 hits, the highest total in Japan this season, to batter Seibu around and cruised at Seibu Dome.

Former Lion Jose Fernandez had two hits and three RBIs, and Yosuke Takasu and Teppei Tsuchiya added three hits each for the Eagles.

HAWKS 3, FIGHTERS 1

Tomoaki Egawa belted a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth, and Brian Falkenborg put the tying runners in scoring position before SoftBank escaped Sapporo Dome with a victory over Nippon Ham.

Egawa also singled in the second, while Hiroki Kokubo went 4-for-4 to leap to within 13 of 2,000 career hits.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

CARP 3, GIANTS 0

Bryan Bullington (2-3) limited Yomiuri to three hits and a walk over seven scoreless innings, and Eishin Soyogi homered as Hiroshima recorded a shutout at Tokyo Dome.

The second-year righty posted his first victory against the Giants, getting help from Kam Micholio and Dennis Sarfate [save No. 6], to stop his personal three-game skid against Yomiuri.

TIGERS 2, DRAGONS 2, 10 INNINGS

Hanshin picked up its first run in 36 innings and added the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th, but Masahiro Araki knocked in the tying run off Tigers closer Kyuji Fujikawa to earn Chunichi a time-limit tie after 3 hours 56 minutes of play at Nagoya Dome.

The Swallows and BayStars were rained out at Yokohama Stadium.