WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL D - ISRAEL VS PUERTO RICO

March 13, 2023

Ian Kinsler

LoanDepot Park

Team Israel

Postgame Press Conference

Puerto Rico 10, Israel 0

Q. Obviously not the outcome you wanted, but is there any positive you can take from this game?

IAN KINSLER: Not too many. Tomorrow we have a bunch of bullpen arms ready to throw. That's probably the only positive tonight.

Q. Speaking of tomorrow, due have a starter picked out for tomorrow?

IAN KINSLER: Steinmetz will start the game tomorrow.

Q. An update on Garrett Stubbs? Is it possible?

IAN KINSLER: Not until tomorrow morning, yeah.

Q. You played against the Dominican Republic as a player in 2017 and also in the Olympic games in Japan. The question is, do you think there's something brewing behind Israel and the Dominican Republic. Many of them didn't know that they played baseball until the Olympic games, and they were surprised by the game you had. It was a wake-up win for the Dominican, but do you think there's something brewing there? There's some inspiration for you as a manager now that you are not playing?

IAN KINSLER: Yeah, I think there's a lot of respect from the Dominican team in the Olympics. There's definitely some camaraderie there between the two teams, an understanding.

Tomorrow we're going to play a baseball game. We're going to be competitive, but there's definitely a very good relationship that got developed there.

Q. Just as a follow-up to that, there's also a coordination and the teams are actually getting together before the baseball game. Could you elaborate on that a little bit? Just what do the words "short memory" mean to you?

IAN KINSLER: Yeah, the Dominican embassy will be there tomorrow. We're hosting a little gathering at a local high school baseball field, I believe, and I know Nelson Cruz is going to be there, and I know maybe another coach and a player will be there. Same on our side.

A little clinic and question and answer and just something where we're getting together and just showing the community that there's peace and differences, and we can all enjoy this game together. There's a good relationship there. Tomorrow should be a pretty good event before the game starts.

Q. What do you tell the team after a game like this?

IAN KINSLER: It's got to go down the drain quickly. You have to flush it down the drain. When you get in the shower, shower off, it all goes down the drain, and you have to get ready for tomorrow.

This tournament comes at you quick. You know, we have another game tomorrow that's really important. The faster we can forget about this one, the better.

Q. So it was an historic pitching performance from Puerto Rico. What do you tell your players in those late innings, and also, were you surprised about that offensive explosion from Puerto Rico too?

IAN KINSLER: No, I wasn't surprised. They have really good players. They're aggressive swingers. They swing the bat well. Left too many pitches over the middle of the plate.

As far as the pitching performance, I think any time there's a no-hitter or anything of that sort, it's impressive. I think I heard that was the second one in the World Baseball Classic.