Japanese baseball's interleague interlude gave Central League pitchers a brief respite from having their ERAs ruined by Tetsuto Yamada. But on a somewhat wet Friday night at Jingu Stadium, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows star declared school was back in session.
Yamada drove in two runs with a homer in his first at-bat and two more with a double his next time up to help starter Yasuhiro "Ryan" Ogawa end a long winless streak in the Swallows' 5-1 victory over the Chunichi Dragons.
Yamada has picked up right where he left off last season, when he won the CL MVP Award for the first time. His home run on Friday was his 24th of the year, which leads all NPB players.