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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 1ST ROUND POOL DMarch 10, 2017Edwin RodriguezZapopan, Jalisco, México Puerto Rico - 11, Venezuela - 0. Q. Tell me a little bit about Seth Lugo's performance? EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: Well, obviously he was key to the game. To throw so effective and economic, he has allowed us to use the bullpen more aggressively. If you had told me about this result before the game, it would really have been -- to be honest I wouldn't limit nothing with a lineup that powerful. Against Felix Hernández, that would have been difficult to imagine. Q. Tell us a little bit about the performance tonight and also Carlos Correa playing third base. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: That was the case for the game. He was very effective, very efficient with his pitches. He took us to the fifth inning. That gave us the chance to be a little bit more aggressive with the bullpen, and that was the key of the game, Seth Lugo's performance, and then Carlos Correa. He did everything. He defended third base, he stole bases, home runs, two very good at-bats for those two players. It was the key to the game. With any game, we have the kind of team that any given day, somebody has got to step up, and we saw that today. If we point out some of the different performances, T.J. Rivera, Carlos Correa, all those guys, I think it was a very good team effort. Q. The combination, now you are playing Lindor, Correa, that combination defensively. What gave you the motivation to do this? EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: Yes, exactly. What combination of Correa, Lindor and Baez, and any time in a lineup in the same team, in the same infield, we are enjoying it. Puerto Rico, Latin America and the U.S. and the whole world is enjoying it, and we all saw why. It was so much the defense of these three people; it's awesome. They are young athletes who are very agile, and we saw why. You enjoy looking at those guys move around in the infield. Q. How much is there an influence from México? EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: It's a lot, not only the victory against Venezuela, but the way we did it against Venezuela, we're on cloud 9. We have established the philosophy. We have to try to take one day at a time, one pitch at a time like we did in 2013. We cannot go too high or too happy with victories or not let us influence with the losses. We are enjoying, but tomorrow we have another complicated game with México. Q. Like we saw, they are young players. We also saw Molina and Beltran playing with a passion like they are 25, and maybe Yadi enjoying his homer. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: I'll tell them about 25. He's going to be happy. Those are the two leaders of the team, and they enjoy being the leaders of the team, and they know it. It's not only this, they are leaders in baseball in Puerto Rico, and there are a lot of young people that look up to them and admire them, and they want to follow their footsteps. Their energy not only in execution but also like where to be calm in situations, and whatever situation or offensively, defensively, those are the two guys that they question, inside and out of the game or the playing field. Molina, Beltran, Beltran, Molina, whichever way you want to call the combination, that's what took us to the sub-championship in 2013, and that's what's carrying us in 2017. Q. It's talked a lot about the offense that you play but little about pitching. Maybe people that are not established in the Big Leagues. What do you expect tomorrow from Jorge who's going to face México, and then if you feel that you're favored? EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: We don't feel favored. The competition in this tournament has to keep us, like you say, with a lot of care. Every game we're going to have competition. About pitching, we know we have very good arms. We saw Lugo. We have Perez and Soto, and we have very good arms, among the best arms that we have had in any edition, and one common denominator, Yadi Molina who knows how to manage the game and knows when to go to the mound and keep them calm, and with that combination of good arms and a good manager behind the plate, that's what gives us the result that we saw today. Q. How did you see México yesterday, and what's the key to winning tomorrow? EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: We haven't had a lot of change coming from Arizona to México, but México is a very, very dangerous team. You have Adrian Gonzales. You have to be very, very careful, good people and good pitching. They had a bad day yesterday, but that doesn't take away a thing. I'm sure that they're going to come here focused for tomorrow's game, and that's why we have to pass today and focus on whatever we have to face tomorrow. Q. Looking ahead to the future, talk to me about if Rios is going to be the starter. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: Rios is still the starter against Italy on Sunday. He's still calendared. He gave us -- Rios can take us to three or four. Italy has really good hitters, but we're going to have the same plan. The only plan that has changed is for tomorrow's game. Q. You were mentioning something about Molina and how he manages pitchers, specifically against Venezuela, his work, because there's a lot of millions of dollars. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: Exactly, and Yadi Molina, he has always been a determining factor. He's been the master of pitchers, and then with a lineup with Venezuela, which are people established in the Big Leagues, that gives us a chance to look at videos, look at information, having Yadi Molina or José Molina as a coach who have faced them in countless occasions, and that helps us establish our working plan. The more we know their hitters against Venezuela, we have a little bit better advantage as far as knowing how they work. Q. Going with Yadi Molina, there were four or five times he took the defense around. He looks like a coach on the field. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ: In the future he's going to be a really good manager. We start a defensive strategy before the game. If he sees something different, a pitch that is not working and he comes to change the strategy, he lets us know, and we adjust. But everything has been magnified before the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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