...Tony Blanco hit a home run on the first pitch he saw from Shun Tono in his second at bat on Thursday.  Against the Yomiuri Giants last season, Blanco hit 7 home runs, all within the first 3 pitches he saw and four with the count at 0-1.  Prior to the game on Thursday, Hiromitsu Ochiai spent some time working with Blanco, who was hitless in his last 3 games.  If you include the practice games in Okinawa, Blanco had been just 1 for his last 16 with 8 strike outs.

Incidentally, Blanco has managed to get his weight back down to 110kg (he started camp at 115kg).

...Daisuke Yamai has not won a game in 2 years.  He hit a batter in the head during his last outing on 2/27 and was promptly ejected.  On Thursday, he appeared a lot more settled in and tossed 6 shutout innings while giving up two hits and striking out six; he did not walk, or hit, a batter.

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