WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - COLOMBIA VS GREAT BRITAIN

March 13, 2023

Jolbert Cabrera

Chase Field

Team Colombia

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Has your phone been blowing up since the win, what was it, Saturday night? Get a lot of people reaching out?

JOLBERT CABRERA: Yeah, the game, right after the game, I have a lot of messages. It hasn't been overwhelming, just because I've been around a little bit. But a lot of support, mostly. A lot of support.

Didn't really appreciate the guys asking me about a couple of plays (laughter) but other than that, a lot of support from people all over the place.

Q. You came in after the win, I assume you talked to guys, you came in here all teary eyed, just being emotional. What's it like to be around these guys? What about them gets you so emotionally invested?

JOLBERT CABRERA: Well, I'm going to share this with you guys just because it's a couple of days later. I make a mistake and I feel very bad, plus the win, the way we win the game, I took Diaz out from the middle of the field.

I got caught up talking to the umpire and I forgot to tell the kid that he wasn't going to go out to play defense. And I feel very bad because we've been encouraging him to do his work at second base. He's been working extremely hard with Orlando. You saw it. He's getting better. He played a fantastic game defensively for us ending the game. That was the last thing that I wanted to do.

And I was heartbroken. And before I came out here, I addressed it in front of everybody in the clubhouse. So that's what was going on.

Q. After the emotional win, was it hard to be off yesterday? Or was yesterday a welcome relief so you could recharge your batteries?

JOLBERT CABRERA: Just trying to emphasize to the guys that what's done is done already. Not even thinking about what we saw last night, that nobody will respect that from the last game yesterday.

Just worry about what we've got in front of us. That's Great Britain right now, and trying to get them to bring the same kind of energy, even though I expect the stadium to have a lot of empty seats. So just don't get caught up in that. That's the message that I'm sending to them.

Q. What have you seen from Great Britain so far? I know you've obviously been focused on the teams you've been playing, but what have you seen from Great Britain in the first two games?

JOLBERT CABRERA: They're going to run. They get on base, they're going to run. They're going to stick to their plan. I feel like that's only -- they have a few weapons and speed is one of them. And they're going to continue to deploy their runners.

We're going to be ready for them today. Hopefully we can keep them off base. That's the best way to contain their running game.