WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - GREAT BRITAIN VS UNITED STATES

March 11, 2023

Drew Spencer

Chase Field

Team Great Britain

Postgame Press Conference

USA - 6, Great Britain - 2

Q. Obviously you guys got off to a hot start there with Trayce right out of the gate in the first. What was the vibe in the dugout after Trayce ran back in?

DREW SPENCER: We were excited. That's a great moment for us. We said for us to have a chance in this game we would need to strike early and we did. It built some confidence. People were excited that the game plan looked like it was working.

Q. What's it like going through that lineup? Obviously there's no soft spots. And once you get out Trout you have to face Goldschmidt and Arenado?

DREW SPENCER: It's a tough lineup. I can't imagine a manager in the world that looks at that lineup and thinks they're going to have a an easy day. But I'm really proud of my pitching staff. I think they did a fantastic job pitching to the plan we had, using our strengths.

You could try to pitch to their weaknesses or pitch to your strengths. And I think we did a great job of doing what we wanted to do in this.

Q. As players, your younger players experience a big moment, big stage for the first time, you can have a plan for how it's going to feel, but oftentimes players won't know until there's a moment. What was your assessment of just how they dealt with the situation, the stage the opponents, and just how they stuck on to the game plan?

DREW SPENCER: I think they showed they were ready for the competition. I don't think anybody was expecting that game to be that close, when it was -- except us. There was 30 men in that dugout that knew we were going to battle. And we did.

I think that what was great was that they played for each other. When I looked around, one of my favorite moments in that whole game was Jaden Rudd comes out, D'Shawn Knowles goes in, gets that triple. And Jaden is the first guy up congratulating him when he comes in. That just shows who we are.

Q. You've got a 20-year-old catcher in Harry Ford. How much did you put on his plate in terms of calling the game, and how do you think he handled the moment?

DREW SPENCER: He's a professional catcher. He showed it. We let him call the game. He did a fantastic job. He's got veterans pitchers on the bump, so when they don't like something they'll let him know.

But you didn't see a lot of shakes. Harry called a fantastic game, and what's great is he's 20 years old, but his preparation is like someone who has been playing the game for a decade.

He showed up the first night of camp. A lot of people would have wanted to go to bed. He wanted to go through notes. He wanted to go through it all. And he's taken it upon himself to go meet with all the pitchers and talk about what they want to do and how they're going to attack everybody. He's as prepared as anybody I've ever seen.

Q. Do you see this as an advantage that tomorrow you'll be facing a team that's kind of coming in cold, didn't play today?

DREW SPENCER: I mean, I think in tournaments like this, that can be an advantage, definitely. All our guys have shaken the cobwebs off and they've played at game speed and played a full nine with full intensity, which isn't something you see in spring. So you've got to count that a little bit our way when tomorrow kicks off.

Q. How did you emerge from this game from a pitching perspective based on how you were planning to map it out? And are you ready to announce a starter for tomorrow against Canada?

DREW SPENCER: So I think the way I emerge today is I feel as though my pitchers executed and I'm proud of them. I think they did a fantastic job. And I think every one of them deserves to go home and hold their up head high.

My pitching staff, Zach and Conor did a fantastic job of scripting that out. We had a couple of plans. And I joked around a little bit about plan A, B and C. And we stuck with plan A, and we were in the ball game right to the end.

We're not ready to announce the starter for tomorrow. Sorry, it's tournament we'll play with every advantage and hold onto the mystery.

Q. When you guys expected to be in this game and you were right down to the end, closer than people thought. They're still individual players and to have guys strike out Mike Trout or base knocks against these pitchers that the U.S. is throwing out there, how much those little individual moments helps you guys as a team to get ready for the rest of the tournament?

DREW SPENCER: I think it's big. I think a tournament like this guys don't get a lot of time together to get to know each other, so what they see is what they see in practice, in batting practice and bullpens and not necessarily in live situations.

And the energy built. We did it this in Regensburg in September. It's the same thing. Day one, day two, people start to look around, you see the eyes get big and the smiles because they know that we're going to be better than what people expect.

Walking out of a game tonight, even though the scoreboard said it wasn't a victory for us, mentally it will be. And I think it's going to help everybody go into the next couple of days with a lot of confidence.

Q. How do you take forward from this, what this is like for British baseball, to push forward to show you can compete at this international level?

DREW SPENCER: Like I've said, every pitch of every inning of every game of this is for British baseball. We're here to grow the game. But I've got to be honest, right now, as much as that's what we're here to do, what we're thinking about is tomorrow and not necessarily the impact back home. Because we know that if we take care of business every day that's how we can honor the British Baseball Federation and everybody that's rooting for us in the UK.