WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - CANADA VS UNITED STATES

March 13, 2023

Mark DeRosa

Chase Field

Team United States

Pregame Press Conference

Q. How was the night and the conversations, how extensively did you have to talk to other managers, talk to your players? Take me through the last 12 hours?

MARK DEROSA: For us, certainly having to use six relievers and kind of the parameters that are on those relievers makes it difficult.

I'm going to focus on Lance Lynn getting the ball today. He's the perfect guy. Pumps a ton of strikes. I expect him to be great. I really do. Him and Miles Mikolas will piggyback off of him.

Q. I guess Kelly is your other --

MARK DEROSA: Kelly will start against Colombia.

Q. If you were wearing your other hat as an MLB analyst, how would you have analyzed the game last night?

MARK DEROSA: In the perfect world you wouldn't have liked to have hung Brady out to dry there. But the way we're built, we've got to cover innings. That's just the bottom line. It's who is available that given night, and you're trying to cover the nine innings and just in case we were able to tie it up, maybe cover some extra innings as well.

I hated the fact that he had to kind of sit out there north of 30 pitches. I hated the fact that we took Daniel Bard north of 30 pitches. But it's kind of the hand we're dealt.

Q. Are any of the relievers who pitched last night, can any of them pitch today?

MARK DEROSA: Yes.

Q. Would you?

MARK DEROSA: Might have to.

Q. It's not like a last resort thing?

MARK DEROSA: No, I wouldn't say it's a last resort. I would say to a man in there, everyone wants to step up. We'll see how the game flows. But there are certainly guys available for us to go get some innings.

Q. Have you studied much or looked into, like, how the standings could shake out in pool play, like what exactly is on the line tonight?

MARK DEROSA: I mean, I'm trying not to look that deep into it. I'm certainly -- hopefully grab the W tonight and focus on it a little bit more. I know Great Britain, winning their ball game against Colombia certainly was a positive.

I just want us to relax a little bit. I'd like to get in the dugout bottom of the first, not down and kind of give everybody a chance to exhale and let these top four guys do their thing.

Get Mookie going. Get Mikey going, Mike finds himself on base if he's not feeling great or feeling great. I'd like those top three guys to get rolling, kind of relax everybody.

And I wanted Tim Anderson in there. I felt he's been an igniter for us. I called him this morning. I know he's not used to playing second base, but I felt like, with the way these guys are shifting, he's not foreign to being over there. And I felt his energy and passion, the way he's swinging the bat, what he's shown me these last couple of weeks, I just felt he was deserving of being in there.

Q. Is it weird seeing the shifts? It's what we've always had here, but watching Spring Training games, how they're gone, and now seeing them again?

MARK DEROSA: It's funny, this is all I know. Since I've been named the manager I've had nothing but singular focus on this and trying to put this together.

Listening to the guys in the locker room, they certainly are enjoying the pitch clock. They've got to get used to it from an offensive standpoint. But ripping that 30 minutes off the game, it seems to be a positive for a lot of these guys.

Q. You mentioned it. How do you get Mookie and Trout going, because the more you press, the harder it is. And it seems like with Mike, especially, hasn't played a lot in the last couple of years. He looks behind on the ball.

MARK DEROSA: I think against Great Britain we were facing, like, 87 to 89. I think he was a little out in front. I'm going to tip my hat to Patrick Sandoval. I thought he threw the heck out of the baseball last night. Then Assad comes in, goes through innings and gives up one hit.

I know they were flying high because their offense was swinging the bat, but they're two of the best players the game's known, probably future Hall of Famers. Not really much I'm going to tell them to get them going. I just want them to relax and have fun.

Q. These games are pretty singular, like Great Britain played that game yesterday and came back and won today. And you can certainly play a clinker and come back and win today?

MARK DEROSA: Absolutely, no doubt. But it begins and starts on the mound. It always does. It sets the tone. I just want to get in the top of the first with a chance for this offense to kind of explode. I think they're ready to. I really do.

Q. No homers in the first inning?

MARK DEROSA: That would be nice.

Q. You talked last night about the challenge of piecing together the whole game from a pitching standpoint. If you get past this round and suddenly you get 80 pitches out of your starters, how much easier does that --

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, it's got to change. No doubt, it will change when we get on that plane to Miami. Certainly trying, like I said, it's been a puzzle to try and put this together through pool play, especially with the piggybacking of starters.

It's not like you're going with four starters or five starters and then the rest of them are relievers. There's seven starters. And once they throw they're done until we get to Miami. So if they struggle, it kind of taxes what we've got available in the pen. And then you've got to honor those parameters as well.