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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 1ST ROUND POOL C

March 12, 2017

Jim Leyland

Miami, Florida

USA - 8, Canada - 0

Q. A lot of talk about some Team USA starting pitchers that didn't come. But your three starters could not have done any better. How impressive were you with Archer, Stroman and Duffy these last three games?
JIM LEYLAND: I think all of our guys did an excellent job. I don't think there's any question about it. In a venue like this you worry more about the pitch count and getting up there too quick. But Stroman was terrific last night. Duffy was pretty good tonight and Archer was actually fantastic.

So, it was very well done by starting rotation, no question about it.

Q. Wondering if you could describe your emotions at the weekend being over and getting on to San Diego.
JIM LEYLAND: Well, it's a great question. Relieved, obviously. I think that a lot of people, the expectations for the Team USA are high, and I tried to downplay that but it's a thrill to get out of here. It wasn't easy, to be honest with you. But when you look at it, we won two good games and we lost one tough game where we had a good lead. So, I'm very pleased with the performances and I'm excited to move on.

I know Canada knocked the United States out one year, maybe 2006 or something. So, you knew they were going to come to play. So, there was some concerns. When you got to win the game, it's a little bit different.

Q. What about the challenge of putting last night behind you, all that excitement, and obviously disappointment at the end, was it difficult to with the quick turnaround?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, but good teams know how to turn the page. Obviously there was a little less excitement here tonight than there was last night, but that's very understandable. But still, the players were excited, they came ready to play and they did. It was a nice evening for us and hopefully we'll enjoy a nice plane ride out to San Diego, and we'll have a day or so off.

So we'll let guys freshen up a little bit. The guys are playing pretty much nine innings. I finally got a couple other guys in there, which I wanted to do. I got to get McCutchen back in there. I got to get Murph back in there. So we'll see how it plays out. But it's tough for these guys to play that many innings at this time of the year. But they're all in good spirits. They're ready to do it and hopefully they can relax a little bit for a couple days.

Q. You talked about the excitement of last night, what do you think the key is to getting more excitement into the American team?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I'm not really sure. I know you guys write about that a lot, you guys probably got a better feel for that than I do. I'm not really sure. Last night there was quite a bit of excitement for the U.S., obviously more for the Dominicans.

But I don't really have the answer. For some reason I think it's a Spring Training time and a lot of attention is -- people come down and follow their team, they want to follow their favorite players. I think some people don't come south because they know their favorite players aren't going to be there possibly. So I'm not really sure what we need. I mean, this team should perk it up a little bit I would think. We got some good players. These guys that we got playing for the Team USA this year, not that they haven't in the past, but we got some really good players and name players. We got a couple guys that got three World Series rings catching and playing short. I mean, that's pretty good.

Q. What were your emotions like today just watching that first game with the Colombia and the Dominican Republic, knowing that it could involve you guys with a tiebreaker?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, Canada knocked us out one year, I want to tell you, and I'm proud of the fact that we're moving on, but I got to tell you something, I've got to tip my hat to Colombia. People kind of looked at us when we just got by them that first game like, well, they beat Colombia, big deal. Colombia got the winning run thrown out at the plate tonight. I mean, Colombia was really impressive. I would say maybe the sleeper impressive team of this tournament so far, to be honest with you. They were unbelievable. They played with energy.

Their manager did a fantastic job and he's a great guy, but Colombia, I really tip my hat to them. Like I said, ball falls out of the catcher's glove, they're a winner tonight. And with the Dominican with no more at-bats to have. So they were really impressive.

Q. Obviously you don't know which is your first rival in the second round, but I would like to know your impression on Team Puerto Rico of what they have done so far in the tournament.
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, well, I know obviously quite a few of the players at Puerto Rico. Not as many from Mexico. Obviously, Adrian Gonzalez I know pretty good. So, we'll see. The further you move on in this thing, the tougher it gets. So, hopefully we can enjoy this, the camaraderie of it tonight. The guys are happy in the clubhouse and sitting and having dinner together, basically. And we'll worry about that on the plane. We'll try to get prepared.

We've got scouting reports. We had them on the guys that we knew from Colombia. We had them on the guys we knew from Canada. So we will have some information. Probably not as much, obviously, as you would have if you were managing a regular Major League season.

Q. Do you plan to keep the same professionals for the second round?
JIM LEYLAND: Not sure about that. I think that I'm not sure about that just yet. It's a good question but I'm not sure just yet.

Q. I think I was asking the same question, if you would use that designated pitcher pool to change the roster.
JIM LEYLAND: I think there's a good chance that Drew Smyly's going to pitch the first game of the second round.

Q. How eager will this team be to get another crack at the Dominicans?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, one thing about the Major League players and they have so many of them, they have all stars all over the field, we got a lot of all stars all over the field, there's a mutual respect there, I think. I don't think it's one of those situations, well, we can't wait to get another shot at those guys. I don't think they think like that. I think they know the Dominican Republic is a top-to-bottom fearsome lineup. We're going to play them. We did have a 5-0 lead on them, so it wasn't like we were intimidated or embarrassed by anything. We had our shot and we just didn't quite get it done.

But we want to play whoever we're supposed to play. I don't think the mentality of that is going to change no matter who we play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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