It may be back to the drawing board for Orix Buffaloes ace Chihiro Kaneko after the right-hander allowed six runs in three innings on Saturday in a 6-5 loss to the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Kaneko (0-1), who swept the postseason awards last season, was pitching in his first game since having shoulder surgery in November. After a scoreless first inning, the first three Marines batters reached in the second, when Kazuya Fukuura’s double made it a 1-0 game. Later, a mental error by Buffaloes second baseman Masahiro Nishino turned an easy grounder into an infield single to load the bases with no outs.

With one out and the bags still juiced, Kaneko tried to go inside but missed over the plate with a 1-1 two-seam fastball to Ikuhiro Kiyota. The red-hot Marines leadoff hitter blasted it into the seats well above the left-field wall at Kyocera Dome for his first career grand slam.

“He’s an amazing pitcher and I had to be ready to swing,” said Kiyota, who hit his sixth home run of the season. “This is a confidence boost for me.”

Fukuura added an RBI infield single in the third, when he hit a soft two-out liner off Kaneko’s glove. The ball died behind the pitcher’s mound, but Kaneko looked clueless as a run scored from third and Fukuura was safe at first.

Kaneko surrendered seven hits and a walk, while striking out one.

“This is the first time I’ve pitched this way and it has to be the last,” Kaneko said. “I cannot apologize enough for pitching that could not meet expectations.

“I thought I would be ready in time (for Opening Day) but I had some discomfort in an unexpected place and I didn’t know how to deal with it.”

The last-place Buffaloes began their fight back in a three-run fifth, with four straight no-out singles off Ayumu Ishikawa. The right-hander allowed three runs in seven innings to improve to 4-2. Carlos Rosa pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, but closer Yuji Nishino was tested in the ninth. Nishino allowed two runs on three hits before retiring Yoshio Itoi on a groundout with the tying run at second.

Fighters 9, Hawks 2

At Sapporo Dome, Haruki Nishikawa’s first career grand slam and Sho Nakata’s three-run homer in the second and seventh innings, respectively, backed six Hokkaido Nippon Ham pitchers, who limited Fukuoka Softbank to two runs.

Lions 4, Eagles 2

At Saitama’s Seibu Prince Dome, Hideto Asamura’s two-run double in the seventh inning gave Seibu the lead, and the right-handed slugger also hit a solo homer in the third-inning.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Tigers 4, BayStars 2 (10)

At Yokohama Stadium, Kosuke Fukudome put Hanshin in front for good with his second and third RBIs of the game on a 10th-inning single. Fukudome had given the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the ninth, only for Yokohama’s Aarom Baldiris to tie it with an RBI single and force extra innings.

Giants 4, Dragons 1

At Nagoya Dome, Yasuyuki Kataoka’s eighth-inning infield single tied it 1-1 and Yomiuri tacked on three more on an RBI double by Hayato Sakamoto and a sacrifice fly by Itaru Hashimoto in a win over Chunichi.

Swallows 12, Carp 8

At Mazda Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada and Yuhei Nakamura each drove in four runs as every Tokyo Yakult starter had at least one of the team’s 17 hits in a win over Hiroshima.