TOKYO (Interstat) — Kyo Suzuki snapped out of a prolonged slump with a three-run home run in the third inning and added an RBI double in the fifth, powering the Yakult Swallows to a 5-1 victory over the Yomiuri Giants on Monday evening before 42,310 at Tokyo Dome.

The Swallows improved to 20-12, while the Giants fell to 16-15 in the opener of a three-game series between the Central League rivals. The game lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes.

Yakult seized control in the top of the third inning against Yomiuri starter Shosei Togo. Hidetaka Namiki led off with an infield single and advanced on a flyout to left. After Domingo Santana was hit by a pitch, Suzuki drove a 1-0 pitch deep over the left-field wall for his first home run of the season, giving the Swallows a 3-0 lead. Suzuki entered the game hitless in his previous 12 at-bats over four games and had not driven in a run since April 26.

The Swallows added two more runs in the fifth inning, again capitalizing on two-out hitting. Namiki singled with one out and stole second base. After Santana flied out, Suzuki lined a double to left-center to score Namiki. Souma Uchiyama followed with a single to left, plating Suzuki and stretching the lead to 5-0.

Yomiuri got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Shunsuke Sasaki singled with one out, stole second base and scored on a single to left by Riku Masuda, cutting the deficit to 5-1. The Giants managed only three more hits the rest of the way.

Yakult starter Yasunobu Okugawa earned his first win of the season, allowing one earned run on seven hits over six innings while striking out five and walking none. Okugawa, who entered with an 0-2 record, retired the side in order in the third and fifth innings and wriggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first.

Four Yakult relievers combined to shut out Yomiuri over the final three innings. Jose Quijada struck out two in a perfect seventh, Tomoya Hoshi worked a scoreless eighth and Noboru Shimizu retired the side in the ninth, ending the game on a flyout by Masuda.

Togo took the loss for Yomiuri, falling to 0-1. The right-hander allowed five runs on six hits over five innings, striking out five and walking one. Kenshin Hotta, Elvis Luciano and Tatsuya Ishikawa each threw a scoreless inning of relief for the Giants, with Hotta striking out one in two innings.

Suzuki finished 2 for 3 with a home run, a double and four RBIs. Namiki scored twice for Yakult. Masuda went 2 for 4 with an RBI for Yomiuri, while Bobby Dalbec singled twice.

The victory capped a topsy-turvy homestand for Yakult, which lost 12-2 to Yokohama on Sunday after winning four of its previous five games. The Swallows have now won 10 of their last 14 games and have taken four of the seven meetings between the two clubs this season. Yakult faces the Giants again Tuesday and Wednesday before traveling to Hiroshima for a weekend series.

Yomiuri has lost three straight and four of its last five after a three-game winning streak from April 29 to May 1. The Giants have dropped three consecutive home games to the Swallows dating to April 18, when Yakult won a 4-3 contest in four innings due to rain. The next two games in the series will be played Tuesday and Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Yomiuri Giants 5, Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4. Interstat’s ELO system had projected Yomiuri with a 55.90 percent probability to win. Yakult had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5. The total score of 5 went over the over-under line of 6.0.