WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - CANADA VS COLOMBIA

March 14, 2023

Ernie Whitt

Noah Skirrow

Otto Lopez

Chase Field

Team Canada

Postgame Press Conference

Canada - 5, Colombia - 0

Q. What's the prognosis on Freddie Freeman? And how bad is the hammy if it is a hammy?

ERNIE WHITT: Right now he had tightness in his hammy. And of course for precautionary reasons we took him out of the game right away. He felt something on one of his swings, his second at-bat. So again we would do that to anyone if there's discomfort or something like that, we're going to take them out. All precautions.

Q. What about the roster for tomorrow?

ERNIE WHITT: Again, I don't foresee Freddie being in it for tomorrow. We're waiting from the doctors to see what they say and also the Dodgers. Again, that's the most important thing is his health.

Q. After receiving 20 runs in the first two games of the tournament, what changed between those first two games and today? Was there a change in philosophy? Was it more a psychological issue? What changed?

ERNIE WHITT: No, it was just facing good pitching. I think that's the bottom line, is that they pitched very well against us last night, the USA. And today, they had the lefty up there and keeping us off stride.

And it's nice that we come out on the end of it. But for us to shut down Colombia, our pitching was outstanding. Noah did a great job. And then our bullpen did the rest.

A lot of it, as you know, in the first round, goes down to the bullpen. It's great to have a great start, that's for sure.

Q. Noah, you talked yesterday about this being surreal, this being something you wanted. Describe how it went for you and maybe the way you envisioned it and how it played out on the field?

NOAH SKIRROW: I couldn't ask for much more, really. I mean, went about as good as you could ask for it to go. Just trying to be as aggressive as I could and give us a chance to win and give us as much length as possible.

Q. What did you have working for you that allowed you to be so efficient?

NOAH SKIRROW: It was mostly the heater slider was pretty good, and being able to mix in the curveball to avoid the ambush heater was kind of the game plan, just try to keep them off balance. Use my strength rather than trying to pitch to their weaknesses.

Q. The game like yesterday that was very uneven, then you lost by a lot to the United States, the favorite. And today the scenery changes. What did you guys have to do to establish the mood so you could act like nothing happened yesterday.

ERNIE WHITT: I guess the biggest thing, coming into this tournament, we knew that we had to win three games. And the three games would have been against Great Britain, Colombia and tomorrow against Mexico. If we do that, then there is no chance of us not going forward. Takes all the math out of play.

And that's what we've kind of built our pitching up for that, for that reason.

And Colombia is a good ball club. They have some real good players over there. They're scrappy. They're a tough opponent. Their pitcher did a nice job. You're talking about a 1-0 game through seven innings, I believe. And then we got another one. So it was a good pitchers' ball game.

Q. Were you surprised this Colombia team, that offensively was dead today? Or was it the pitching that from your side that was the starter and the reliever, that Colombia was not able to decipher? So which one do you think was the cause of the win today?

ERNIE WHITT: I think it was our pitching. They always say good pitching beats good hitting. And Colombia is a very aggressive team, and we were able to spot up our fastballs and breaking balls and kind of keep them where they didn't get the barrel of the bat on the ball.

Kudos to our pitchers. They did their job and we finally broke through at the end. Otto hitting the nice insurance three-run homer -- three-run homer, was it? I'll let him talk about that.

Q. (Indiscernible) Otto, Noah, all guys 24 or under and they came up big for you guys today. What do you make of the young talent you have on this team and Canadian baseball as a whole?

ERNIE WHITT: Number one, yes, we have a young team but they're getting an opportunity to play. This is a big stage for them. Hopefully they'll go back to their organizations excited about having the opportunity to play.

And players get older and when they get older we have to turn them over to the young ones. But we still have a lot of older guys on the team. So they're able to feed off of the older guys and we try to make them comfortable.

And just play their game. We want them to play their game. Again, we're not asking them to do more than what they're capable of doing, just go out and play the game, as they say in MLB.

Q. Otto, you guys had a few chances to get a big blow. Can you describe a little bit your at-bat in the ninth inning and just the feeling knowing you had broken the game open?

OTTO LOPEZ: I got in this same situation before, a few at-bats. And I talked to the coach and then they tell me, like, if you can't swing just go for it. Don't get in between and get behind and swing on those two.

And I just go there and they trust me, so I can keep swinging. I just swing myself. It was great.

Q. Ernie, using only four pitches total in this game the efficiency, obviously Lopez's shot allowing you to save Matt Brash as well. How important was the efficiency of your pitchers in setting you up for tomorrow?

ERNIE WHITT: Very important. They're all, other than Noah, are available for tomorrow. We're set. We still have some good arms out there. And, again, it was just us playing to try to save the arms for the last two games. And hopefully Rob will give us a good start tomorrow.

And, again, as I've said all along in this tournament, the first round, a lot of it falls on your bullpen. We have some arms that will be ready for tomorrow.

Q. You (indiscernible) Mathieson in the ninth inning. Is it your thought before the game plan?

ERNIE WHITT: He was on the list to use depending what we needed. Scotty's been out of the game a couple years, but he's kept himself in good shape.

If the game was still 2-0 at the time, probably would not have been in the game. Brash would have been in the game.

Q. Otto, first in the ranking of hitting, as a professional, where is this one today? And number two, what are the emotions of doing this for Canada, a country that you have evolved as a baseball player and where you grew up?

ERNIE WHITT: First of all, I classified as number ones all the hits that I have done.

And number two, play for Canada signifies everything for me since I have started since the first day I was in Canada; they opened the doors for me. And I'm going to give everything I have to defend the team and put the team of Canada in the highest.

Q. As a long-time manager in this tournament, where would you say the competition level is now in comparison to the first one in 2006? Has it gotten steeper every time you've played, and where is it right now?

ERNIE WHITT: I think each country has improved with their talent. I think there's a feeling among all countries that they want to be a part of this tournament. And they're getting their better players to play. I think the U.S. in 2006 was a very good team.

I think this team, this year that they have, is probably better as far as positional players are concerned. But I think each country, they want to be a part of it. They feel the passion for their country. And I think that the talent level is growing because they're getting Major League players, more Major League players in each country to come and play.

Q. How much tougher does it make for you guys?

ERNIE WHITT: We take our chances. We go out and we play the game the right way. Believe me, we have just as much passion as any other country. And the biggest thing for us is that we may not be the favorites but we will play like we are the favorites.

Q. I like that line, blood is in Canada. That's a country that's growing with people that want to advance in their lives. The group C, is it how you imagined it? Like very hard, with such heavy teams. And then you're coming out of this even though with all the difficulty?

ERNIE WHITT: Each team has good players like, you have seen United States team, Mexico, Colombia, Great Britain. They all have qualified very well. They have good players and the same with us. We have given everything and we will continuing to give everything we can so that we can qualify to the next round.