On the 1st, during practice at Kyocera Dome, Samurai Japan's Softbank Hawks outfielder Kensuke Kondo borrowed Dodgers pitcher Ohtani Shohei's bat and took some free batting practice.

"I borrowed it from Shohei. It's easy to swing," he revealed, and then added with a wry smile, "I'm sure everyone is curious about it. I was curious about it too. I thought that (Ohtani's) distance was thanks to the bat, but I was wrong," drawing laughter from the press.

He was also seen talking about batting with Ohtani and Yoshida. "I wanted to talk about a lot of different things and confirm things like, 'I think this is how it should be.'" He was fired up for the first round of the WBC, which begins on the 6th, saying, "I think my role is to connect the dots and get on base. I want to play in the training games while imagining the real thing."