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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 1ST ROUND POOL C

March 10, 2017

Luis Urueta

Miami, Florida

United States - 3, Colombia -2

Q. Today Colombia their debut against a baseball powerhouse. Yes, you lost, but I think you earned the respect of the whole baseball world. Do you feel that despite the result it was a moral victory?
LUIS URUETA: I think you are completely right. We competed and things were done correctly. We had a short meeting now after the game, and I told the guys that the end result was not important for us. It was to show the people what Colombia is being done with baseball. We played good baseball, unfortunately, we made some errors. With their experience overcame a couple bad pitches by Moscoso. The result was not good for us, but we are happy for the job we did, to be tied for 10 innings with the USA, I think it was satisfactory and the players should be proud.

Q. You announced that your rotation would be Quintana today, Teheran tomorrow and William Cuevas against the DR. Why did you decide to bring William Cuevas in relief today, who would be your third starter against DR?
LUIS URUETA: Because previously I said that I would try to win the three games, not one or two. The time that Jose came out, we were winning the game and Cuevas was our third best pitcher, and I had the opportunity to close the game in four innings. Unfortunately, a ball that went under Jhonathan's glove tied the game, and later in the game I think that we were facing a left-hander, and Nappo started the inning, then came in Moscoso, who despite making a mistake to Jones, I think he threw the ball well.

So we have to plan again to play tomorrow's game. That is extremely important for our aspirations to classify, because this is only the first game and there are two games still to play, and our aspiration is to go onto the next round.

Q. Quintana did not get to 65 pitches. Could you use him on Sunday?
LUIS URUETA: No, he went beyond 50 pitches, and once you go past 50 pitches, you have four days of rest. So he's not available for this round.

Q. What can you tell us about the great performance by Quintana?
LUIS URUETA: Solid. For Jose, this could be one of his best games in professional baseball, not only for his value, because he was representing his country, but what he did with his pitching. If I remember correctly, in the fifth inning he had 51 pitches. It doesn't happen too often in Major Leagues, especially with a rival such as the U.S., which is a team of all stars. It could be one of the strongest team if it was in the Major Leagues.

What Jose did was to attack the zone first. His pitch command, he used his fastball, change-up. His curveball, despite he left some up and they hit them well, the defense supported him well. You have to give a lot of credit the boys who played defense. There was a question in the fifth inning whether he would go into the sixth, but the question was easier when he faced a left-hander, who was Murphy and Crawford.

Unfortunately, Crawford got a hit and took him out of the game. But to go five and two thirds, and only allow one, I think it's a feat and it's a quality exit.

Q. Did the way the game play out alter your pitching plans for Canada tomorrow or maybe how you might use some of your position players tomorrow?
LUIS URUETA: Yeah, I answered that question in Spanish, but a little bit different, not really. Because none of the guys that I used today I had plans to throw them tomorrow. Maybe Moscoso was a guy that I could have used tomorrow, but I think he passed the 30-pitch limit, so I won't be able to use him tomorrow. But I still got guys like Frieri, Dayan Diaz, which was one guys I was going to rely on. But I wasn't going to do it in a negative role. He was going to pretty much be our closer tonight if we got the lead late in the game.

So I still have Diaz, Frieri, even Marimon, Sugar Ray Marimon. So we still got some guys behind Julio. There's also Pino, who is a guy I have in mind to start Game 3. But it all depends what happens tomorrow. Again, we go day by day and inning by inning, and the scenario changes in every inning. So again we just got to be prepared for any type of situation that comes up.

Q. Both starters were very strong, what was Archer doing so effectively?
LUIS URUETA: We all know Archer. He's got good stuff and good velocity and he was commanding as well. Both guys were attacking the zone early. Our guys had no chance at the beginning either. He kept his pitch count low. And he was getting ahead and using his fastball-slider combo, which worked out pretty well and our hitters couldn't hit him.

Q. Could you tell us about your exchange with Quintana from that fifth to sixth inning as to whether he would come out or not, this early in the Spring Training, to go more than five innings, what did he tell you and you him?
LUIS URUETA: No, in fact, it was one of the decisions to make, to make that decision, being in early in Spring Training and take him six innings, it's a bit risky, to use that term. But the adrenaline at that time and what these guys want to give for their country weighs a lot more than this restriction.

Just the same, he didn't have any restriction, we were thinking about four or five innings, but since his fifth inning was pretty easy. Going out for the sixth made the decision easier, as I said, with two left-handers were coming to the plate. I asked him because he deserved respect and of course his health is above everything. But he told me, "You are the manager, and if you need me I'm ready. I feel good," and that's the way it happened. I used him and Crawford, unfortunately, hit a slider that hung over the middle of the plate, Crawford does well against left-handers, and that was his exit.

Q. Now, when Moscoso had Jones two strikes, did you think of calling for a pitch out of the zone?
LUIS URUETA: No, no, at this moment you don't manage pitches. These are players that have played for a long time in the Major Leagues. Jhonathan he's an excellent catcher and Moscoso has played in the Major Leagues for years, they have an idea of what they want to do. I don't know if you realize it, he still had pitches to waste and he had to battle with Jones. Even with first base unoccupied, remember Arenado that come behind him. Arenado is one of the best hitter in the Major Leagues, and he's also hot in Spring Training and he's a very good batter.

The ideas was to pitch to Jones, unfortunately it changed in the middle, maybe the zone could have been expanded. These things happen in baseball and as I said in the beginning, with this type of batters, you cannot make a mistake and they won and congratulations.

Q. With defense positioning and the way you use your fielders, it was clear you had plans in how to approach the U.S. how would you characterize how much advance scouting, planning, you, Colombia had done before this game?
LUIS URUETA: Plenty. Plenty. I think we got the right people, we got somebody in the staff TJ Lassita, he works with us in the Diamondbacks organization. As soon as we qualified last year and as soon as we know that we were playing the U.S., we had plenty of information. You know how the game goes now, you got information on everybody. And then we just study and evaluated our players and how we could use our players according to the defensive skills that they have, how we could play them. And that's how we made our decisions on how we're going to play our infield.

A little bit different, since we were shifting all the way to the right side and then moving our second baseman to the six hole position and leaving our shortstop in the right side of the field, but it was just a strategy and what type of tools each one of our infielders have.

So, yes, we have a lot of information, not only on the U.S., but on Canada and the Dominican, and we're going to keep doing it. I think it worked today. The guys did a great job defensively. It saves a lot of runs. And of course we're going to take every advantage that the other team gives us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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