◆ WBC warm-up match: Hanshin Tigers vs. Japan (3rd, Kyocera Dome Osaka)

Samurai outfielder Kensuke Kondo scored an additional run.

With the score at 1-0 and two outs in the third inning and a runner on third, he hit breaking ball from Hanshin Tigers 's Ragsdale to center field. He hadn't hit in 12 at-bats since the send-off game against Softbank Hawks on the 22nd (at Hinata Sunmarine), but he finally lit up the long-awaited H lamp. The Samurai players on the bench celebrated with their new "tea making pose."

In the previous day's exhibition game against Orix Buffaloes (at Kyocera Dome), he batted first, but on this day he switched places with Ohtani and played second. He played a valuable role. At a talk show at the end of January, he had said, "I would rather die than bat behind Ohtani," but he certainly delivered results.