WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: SEMIFINALS - CUBA VS USA

March 19, 2023

Mark DeRosa

LoanDepot Park

Team USA

Postgame Press Conference

United States - 14, Cuba - 2

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for Mark. Who has the first question?

Q. Well, you guys won by a big lead, so just curious like when did you kind of shift your focus from the game that were you in to perhaps going into Tuesday?

MARK DEROSA: I don't think I ever really allowed myself to shift my focus to Tuesday. I was just kind of concerned about getting the guys off the field healthy and in one piece, nothing happened, getting everyone in there, a chance to play.

But kind of hats off to Adam Wainwright early there. It was soft contact in the first. I told him he needs to go work on his PFPs again back in Spring Training when this is over (smiling). But for him to grind it out, give us four, I knew Miles had 80 pitches in him, it couldn't have gone any better, honestly.

Q. So the last two games Team USA has really had an outburst of runs. How do you guys hope to take that momentum into the next last championship game against a tough pitcher?

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, they're swinging the bats good, they're having fun being around each other, they're passing the baton, they're not having selfish ABs, constant pressure. I think the first couple innings it was, like, two runs, one run, two, two, two, two. Constant on the attack.

I'm blown away by the way these guys control the strike zone. Trea Turner's in the zone right now, hitting everything he sees. So just like I said, able to get everybody in there, have some fun, relax, and let the pitchers do their thing.

Q. Is there a way to describe how locked in Trea Turner is? And just as a quick follow-up, can you give us an update on Nolan, please?

MARK DEROSA: Nolan's fine. Nolan's fine. I think he would have fought me on it if the score was different. It was a great time to get him off his feet. Had Kyle Tucker been available maybe I was able to move a couple people around and get some other guys off their feet. I tried to do Mookie a favor. He said he didn't want to run to right field no more. So him and Jeff came to an agreement (laughing) to put Jeff out in right field for two innings. But, yeah, just all in all just a -- Nolan's fine. He'll be fine.

Q. (No microphone.)

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, I think for me I kept saying every time he went deep, who is the idiot that's hitting him ninth, you know? (Laughing.) But that's the way this lineup's built. So I'm going to leave him alone right now.

Q. When they scored that first run can you tell me about that?

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, I just think the first inning we gave 'em life. Like I said. A lot of soft contact. But we didn't make the plays, a couple balls found holes. They take a 1-0 lead. Start to give them a little bit of life, and then we took it right back with Goldie getting hot.

Q. What did you think about Trea Turner? Because he connect three home runs in two days.

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, I think he's one of the best players in the game. That's what I think, honestly. I mean, Phillies gave him 300 million dollars for a reason. The guy can flat play.

As this tournament has progressed, these guys, they're at-bats, they're at-bat quality has just gotten better and better. They have relaxed, they understand each other. No one's trying to impress each other. There's just a lot of team unity right now.

Cedric gets in there and goes deep. Just a lot of good things happening right now for this offense, especially with Trea. I mean, his swing last night will be remembered forever, I think, especially in WBC history.

Q. How worried were you about Wainwright in the first? And how close were you to getting somebody up?

MARK DEROSA: No, I wasn't. Just there was -- it was soft contact all around. I mean, certainly a ball gets gapped and we have to start thinking about it. But the way we were set up coming into this game he had to give us length, he and Miles. We had Brady, Brady Singer, in reserve if we needed it. We had Graveman. We had Loup. It was nice to get him an inning. But, no, we weren't panicking in the first.

Q. Do you have a special plan for pitching of Mexico or Japan in the finals?

MARK DEROSA: Yeah, we're going to sit down and discuss starters. Obviously, it looks like it's Merrill Kelly's day. We'll discuss that a little bit more. I think my singular focus was, how do we get our bullpen to Tuesday, and we were able to do that. That was the bottom line. How do we get everybody -- because we would have had to use Devin or Pressly or Graveman. There was a chance those guys wouldn't be available to us in the championship game.

So I was going to ride Miles. Cardinals wanted us to get him to 80 pitches and he went right to it. So, yeah, he wasn't coming out until he reached that mark, especially with the score where it was.

Q. What did you think of the environment? I don't know if you're aware of the history, the first time the Cuban national team had been here and there is a very large Cuban community in the area. What did you see of the pro and against cheering, the fans on the field, just in general, what you thought of -- and what point did you recognize the historic significance?

MARK DEROSA: I mean, once the score got to a point where you could focus on a couple other things, like trying to get some other guys in the game, I certainly had my head in the stands a couple times. I just didn't want anything to happen. I actually went up -- shame on me for not listening this morning in the meeting. I went up and asked if the run rule was still in effect her, because I just wanted to get the guys off the field.

But like I said, it couldn't have worked out better. Miles was able to get his work in and prepare for the start of the season with the Cardinals. I was able to get Loup an inning. He had been sitting around for awhile, ex-teammate of mine in 2013 who was letting me know he wanted to pitch a little bit. So, yeah, I certainly -- we certainly were aware of what was going on.

Q. Following on from that last question, but asking you to think more about how this fits into historic setting, this is the first time that Team USA and Cuba have ever played a baseball game at the World Baseball Classic Premier12 or the Olympics. This is a real moment in history and we're down to the last few teams here. All of these ideas and others, what does this mean to you to be part of this?

MARK DEROSA: To be completely honest with you, I'm not super knowledgeable of all of what's going on over there, and I understand, or I think I understand, that the team kind of represents the government over there, and people aren't too happy about it. I was just focused on us trying to advance to the finals.

Certainly a ton of respect for the guys over there, the Moncada's of the world, the Luis Roberts of the world, who are some of the great young players in the game. Yeah, I was -- from the start, I've been focused on our pitching, like, how do we get our pitching lined up to get us in the finals day-in, day-out. That's been the biggest thing, how do we honor these parent clubs, get the guys the work they need and at the same time not jeopardize us winning or losing a ballgame.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.