Locking arms …

2nd member of Giants’ rotation gets Swallowed

Much was made about the offseason pickups the Yomiuri Giants made to bolster their pitching staff. After two games, the new guys will have to pick up the pieces.

Pinch-hitter Yasushi Iihara smacked a seventh-inning, two-run single in a rally in which the Swallows cashed in on three walks, scoring three runs to come back and beat Yomiuri 6-3 at Tokyo Dome on Sunday.

Hiroyasu Tanaka, who cracked a two-run homer in the sixth inning, got the Swallows even by drawing a bases-loaded walk before Iihara’s heroics.

Loser Hirokazu Sawamura, the Central League’s Rookie of the Year in 2011, looked strong for five innings. But he allowed Tanaka’s two-run blast in the sixth, and got the hook after walking two in the seventh.

Replacement Yuya Kubo, who spent much of the spring trying to come back from offseason hip surgery, walked two before leaving.

The Swallows, meanwhile, got five wobbly innings -- three runs on five hits, a walk and two hit batters -- and sharp work from four relievers, who combined to allow two hits and a walk over the final four.

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama ripped his first homer of the season, a solo shot in the eighth.

Toshiya Sugiuchi, who came over with D.J. Houlton from the the SoftBank Hawks over the winter, gets the ball in the finale as the Giants try to avoid a sweep.

DRAGONS 9, CARP 0

MLB bust Kenshin Kawakami won in his return to Chunichi, wiggling out of trouble over six scoreless innings in a victory over Hiroshima at Nagoya Dome.

Hirokazu Ibata and Ryosuke Hirata led a 13-hit attack with three hits and two RBIs each, and Masahiko Morino had two hits and an RBI while Yuhei Oshima added two hits for the Dragons.

It was Kawakami’s first win at Nagoya Dome since Oct. 1, 2008; and catcher Motonobu Tanishige moved into a tie for fifth on the all-time list of games played, appearing in his 2,638th.

TIGERS 3, BAYSTARS 2

Takahiro Arai stroked a two-run double with the bases juiced to give Hanshin the lead in the sixth inning, and the bullpen nailed it down to top Yokohama at Kyocera Dome Osaka for the first managerial victory for Yutaka Wada.

A night after blowing a one-run lead, Kyuji Fujikawa issued a walk before getting the third out in the ninth--after Kazuya Tsutsui and Daiki Enokida each worked a scoreless inning--to preserve the win for Jason Standridge.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

FIGHTERS 4, LIONS 3

Manabu Iwadate evened the score in the ninth inning with an RBI single and Kensuke Tanaka’s RBI base hit to the outfield gave Nippon Ham a walkoff win over Seibu at Sapporo Dome.

New Seibu closer Enrique Gonzalez allowed two runs on two hits in his .1-inning debut to take the loss for the Lions.

MARINES 5, EAGLES 3

Tomoya Satozaki had two RBI doubles, including one after Shoitsu Omatsu put Lotte in front with a fourth-inning scoring flyball, as the Marines won their second straight over Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

HAWKS 5, BUFFALOES 2

Yuichi Honda smacked a bases-clearing double in the seventh inning to put SoftBank on top and give fifth-year pro Sho Iwasaki -- in the rotation for the first time in his career -- the victory in a comeback against Orix at FYJ Dome.

Iwasaki held Orix to two runs on six hits and a walk over seven innings as the Hawks won their second straight to open the season.