WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL B - CHINA VS JAPAN

March 9, 2023

Lars Nootbaar

Tokyo Dome

Team Japan

Postgame Press Conference

Japan 8, China 1

LARS NOOTBAAR: It was awesome, coming out on the winning side of it, obviously makes it even betterment I think the beginning, the ceremony, everything like that kind of building up, leading up into it, it kind of lived up to all expectations, the crowd, the environment, everything I could have asked for. Like I said, always good to come out with a win.

Q. (No translation.)

LARS NOOTBAAR: Yeah, a lot of nerves going into that one. Kind of been waiting for that at-bat for a long time now. So I told myself, you know, if I got a good pitch to hit that I was going to take a good swing at it and make sure I was on time, fortunately, I felt like all the things lined up where I was on time. I got a good pitch to hit and found a hole which was always nice. You know, a weight off the shoulders which is always good.

Q. What was it like with Ohtani pitching?

LARS NOOTBAAR: Yeah, it's breathtaking. I have to pinch myself every time I watch him play, and today, it was the first time I played behind him defensively. It's really unbelievable. It's nothing like I've ever seen before. I don't take it for granted, that's for sure. I don't think any of us take it for granted. He's a special talent, and it's like a video game out there for him. So it's really fun to watch.

Q. (No translation.)

LARS NOOTBAAR: Yeah, it was a great moment, and I shall I'll be able to kind of share with them later this week. But yeah, it's special. I think it's always great for me that my family kind of gets to come together in Japan, which is nice, because we don't always get to do that very often. I can't wait to see my grandparents, I'm very happy, and I'm sure they are very happy that we won today.

Q. When you prepare for the game, you have to do everything on your own. You have to do your own work and take care of your own business, but don't you watch out of the side of your eye what Ohtani is doing, and how can you separate that, because it's just a great show and he seems to set the tone for the game.

LARS NOOTBAAR: Yeah, I think we all kind of watch him. We do our work but we also are watching him, and I think we do it out of respect but also, he's the best baseball player on the planet, so I think we would be foolish not to do that.

So it's impressive. I said it the other day to one of my buddies, I watched him throw a bullpen where he probably hit a home run. Saw him hit home runs off the back of the Dome, two homers and saw him squat 450, 500 pounds after that. So it pretty impressive. You know, it stuff that you can't even make up. Playing with him is an unbelievable honor, something that, like I said before, I don't think any of us take for granted.

Q. (No translation.)

LARS NOOTBAAR: Yeah, you know, I think we are all out here to give 100 percent. I think anybody in that situation would have done the same thing. But you know, running hard down to first base is something that I think we all take pride in.

So fortunately, it worked out in our favor, but I think that's kind of the message of the team is that I think everybody is out here to play hard and win every single game, whether that's a ground out, that you think is a ground out or not.

Hopefully tomorrow, I won't have to worry about that and I'm not grounding out to the first baseman too many times.