WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - GREAT BRITAIN VS MEXICO

March 14, 2023

Benji Gil

Chase Field

Team Mexico

Pregame Press Conference

Q. You had a day off. What did you do? Did you relax? How are the players?

BENJI GIL: I told the boys, you know, I saw a lot of videos, highlights, it was enjoy the victory. Also enjoy the day off. Also sincerely, like, you're asking me, I was asking them, like, what did you guys do? I was asking the players what were you able to do.

To my taste, it was a goal, do whatever you want, have a day off and mentally prepare from last night for the rival for today.

Particularly, I went to go play golf. I went and had a barbecue with the family that came from Tijuana and San Diego and some friendships from Sonoran-Sinaloa. And we had a good time.

Q. What did you do after a win on Sunday? How do you not lose focus -- let's say it doesn't matter if we don't win today or win tomorrow? Did you see the video?

BENJI GIL: Yes, I did see the video. Do want me to send it? No, I'm just joking. It's just -- it was a victory, a very emotional victory, important because we were behind the knife basically.

But at the end of the day our goal from the first day is to go to Miami. It wasn't beating the United States. It wasn't going 4-0 in the groups. It was to arrive in Miami, the victory.

Let's say if we would have beat Colombia and then we beat the United States, it would have been also very emotional. It would have been a victory just as well. But since we didn't beat Colombia, it was even more important that we won against the United States because at that moment it was like some of you said, if we didn't win, then it would have been very complicated to advance.

So today's game is the same as important against the United States. So today is our focus is to be 100 percent with Great Britain. And we don't want any surprises. We have trust in what we can do. We're going to respect that it's a team, that they're coming to make their own history.

We saw that they won yesterday's game, and they're thinking about winning. They're not thinking about, like, oh, they already beat Mexico. No, they're focused on winning. And we're also focused on the team today, that is Great Britain.

Q. Are you doing the rotation in the lineups, since you have another very important game in less than 12 hours after today? I don't know, especially with the catcher, since it's not easy for a catcher to play back-to-back games?

BENJI GIL: Yes, there will be some adjustments in the lineup, just like you asked. Alexis will be, instead of Barnes, will be catching because it's very hard to play catcher three games in a row, especially right now, when we're in the season.

And it's rarely when a catcher plays at night and then in the morning, and especially in March, even though yesterday was a day off. Maybe we need Austin, maybe we don't, but we have trust in -- I know Alexis very well. And I know he's a good catcher with a lot of capacity. And he'll be in charge and he'll bring us a victory.

Q. The energy from the crowd during your guys' games the first two games has been electric. I'm sure you were kind of expecting that. How much do you feel that's kind of spurred your guys on through the first two games?

BENJI GIL: I'll tell you, I did expect it. I lived it in '06. I've lived it in the Caribbean Series and the finals in Mexico. And it's a very energetic crowd always in important games. The anticipation of this game has been around for a while. And there's no doubt that the Mexican crowd, like I said, it travels well. It travels well.

It travels to different Latin America countries in Caribbean Series. It travels well in boxing. It travels well in all sports. I think we have great sports fans.

So 100 percent it's motivating. It's motivating to the players. A lot of our players have been, like, man, never been a part of anything like that. I'm sure that a lot of the players from the U.S., aside from the result, were, like, this is a really cool experience.

The energy was awesome. And both teams battled. If I was Mark, I'd be proud of how the team battled to the last out. And our guys battled to the last out knowing the significance of the win.

But I think it was great for basketball, more than anything else. Obviously I'm the manager for Mexico but I'm a baseball fan. And I think games like two nights ago and the games that were played in Miami between Dominican, Venezuela and Puerto Rico and Venezuela -- and I'm assuming the game between Dominican and Puerto Rico will be a close to a sell-out if not a sell-out.

The Japan-Korea game was probably a sellout. Probably most of Japan's games in Tokyo were sell-outs. That's what this event is about. Obviously we want to be a champion, but it's to grow the game, and that was the idea. That's what I heard in the late '90s, that it was to grow the game. And I'm excited to be a part of it.

I would love if it was being done every two years, to be honest with you, kind of Ryder Cup-ish. I guess it will settle in the middle every three years between Ryder Cup and World Cup or something like that.

I think it's great for the game and it's awesome for the players because you get an opportunity to play a World Series-type atmosphere -- few of us get to play in World Series games.

Q. What are you expecting to see from your British opponents today?

BENJI GIL: I think they're going to be relentless. I think they're going to do everything they can to kind of put themselves back in the tournament. Obviously they're not thinking about anything else other than winning.

I know they have good speed. Maybe not as experienced a team as the other ones in our group. And that's kind of to be expected, right, being that they don't have much history as far as baseball.

But we're not looking past them. We're not going to look past them. We're going to look at them like it's the U.S. team. The only thing is with a little less information, less information than we had on them.

At the end of the day, it's obvious, less baseball talent as far as experience, accomplishments. But we're not looking past them. We're going to take this game -- and it is, it's the most important game. We can't do nothing about the last two games. And we can't do anything about tomorrow until tomorrow.

So our main focus is being the best version of our team today against an opponent that's trying to beat us.

Q. You've managed every kind of season, winter league, Caribbean Series, Olympics, now doing this. What have you learned in those experiences, and what's the unique challenge with this kind of format, this kind of deal here?

BENJI GIL: The formats are a little different. But I've mentioned in the past, I think managing in winter ball kind of helps for these type of events because you do have to -- you have restrictions on, especially on pitchers. You have restrictions on pitchers. Sometimes you get some light restrictions on players.

But you get Mexican prospects that play for you, and it's, like, okay, they can only throw certain amount of pitches or innings if -- relievers can't pitch back-to-back days. If they go an inning-plus they have to have a certain amount of days off. They go two innings they have to have certain amount of days off. It's something that you have to do throughout the season.

And honestly that's more difficult than this tournament. This tournament, you know going into it that that's what it's going to be like. And it's fair for everybody.

In winter ball, sometimes if one team doesn't have any prospects, they just have relievers that go back to back. They have starters that can throw 120 pitches, and all of a sudden you're playing in an important game, and your pitcher can go 65 pitches. The other team's pitcher can go 100 or 120.

They might have a bullpen where they can go with their closer in a championship series, they can go three days in a row.

I know I had a limitation on my closer a few years ago for the whole winter. So we had to sit him for a week in December when we were trying to get into the playoffs, so I could save innings for the playoffs.

When you have three, four out of seven, best-of-7 series, so I had to save, like, 13 innings to be able to think, okay, we've got to plan on winning the championship and being that you might have to have him throw the last inning of each game that you win, which would be 12, and even have a buffer there in case he needed to throw more than one inning in one of those victories.

So that's a lot tougher. So Olympics, there were some limitations as well. So like I said, it's equal. So to me it seems easier.

Q. We know Great Britain has been playing very aggressively. I know you can't tell me what is the plan to oppose his aggressiveness from Great Britain?

BENJI GIL: Definitely we know the team is very fast but more than anything, we're going to try for them to not get on base because there's no one that has stolen first from home plate.

The first thing is trying to limit get on base consistently, and then after that control the times -- controlling the times from home, from the pitcher.

Also I believe the situation with Alexis Wilson is one of the best catchers in Mexico throwing. And also he's very fast with a good arm. So I think that's going to help us face this situation.

We're hopeful. We think they don't have many opportunities to steal a base, and our pitchers, if they're going fast to home and they give an opportunity for Alexis to get outs. And if he takes out one or two that will limit the aggressiveness that they have.

Q. You were talking about the lack of information of the team because of their pitcher is 22-years-old. He's not debuted as a professional; he comes from the university. What do you expect from a pitcher from that experience and age?

BENJI GIL: It's difficult to know what to expect from them. We know that he has a good changeup. He went to Cal Berkeley. He was signed. He's thrown, pitched one inning in this tournament. We were able to study this.

And we're just focused. We're thinking about our strengths at the end of the day. The message for the players is he has a ball, but we don't have to swing -- he has to throw it as a strike. So just have patience and look for balls in the zone, to attack them. Don't just look to swing just because you want to swing. And also pay attention to the first pitch that he throws to see what we can learn from him the fastest.