SENDAI — They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
That's just fine with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Because the ones Takeshi Yamasaki already knows work just fine.
The 40-year-old Yamasaki gave the Eagles some breathing room with a three-run homer in the fifth inning to support a complete-game effort by starter Masahiro Tanaka as Rakuten won 4-1 to finish off the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series in front of 21,388 fans at Sendai's Kleenex Stadium on Saturday afternoon.