WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL A - PANAMA VS ITALY

March 11, 2023

Luis Ortiz

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Team Panama

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Did you catch any of the Italy game, any highlights, anything you guys can pick up on; that you picked up on for today's game?

LUIS ORTIZ: You talking about in our game?

Q. In Italy's game last night, anything you kind of saw or you noticed that you can use for today at all?

LUIS ORTIZ: In all honesty, I ain't watched that game. I didn't want to see baseball after -- sorry, these people are calling me, I don't want to talk to anybody this morning (phone ringing).

I didn't watch that game in real time. It comes down to me coming out here today with my team and executing and getting a win, so that's the truth.

Q. Throughout this tournament or the last week, have you felt, you or the players, a lot of support coming in from Panama, from friends or family down there?

LUIS ORTIZ: Yeah, it's on. It's all negative; it's all positive. It's fans. I guess they want us to win. We haven't won at this level in a while. The younger kids have done well, and you know, it's like everything else. They want their team to win.

Q. (No translation.)

LUIS ORTIZ: That's a good question. The lineup today might have one or two changes in the order, and the pitcher is a kid that pitched AAA a few years ago. Kind of held him back because I kind of figured it was going to come out -- come down to a fourth game.

So I'm hoping that he can give me at least four or five innings, and if he can do that, we can stay in the game early; we've got a chance of winning late.