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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND TWO

March 12, 2006

POOL 2: SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Welcome to the post-game formal interview of the Venezuela and Cuba game of the second round of the World Baseball Classic in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My name is Barbara Mari. Before I introduce the members of team Venezuela, I want to explain how the interview process will work today and every day after.
Interviews will be conducted in English and Spanish. We ask you to please be patient as the entire process will be interpreted for our stenographers, who will be recording this interview. Our interpreter is Dina Kuriansky. We please ask that if players speak English and Spanish to please react in both languages for appropriate sound bytes.
I will introduce team Venezuela, Luis Sojo and Carlos Zambrano.
Before we open the floor for questions from the media, we would like Manager Sojo and Carlos Zambrano to provide a brief of the game.
LUIS SOJO: Well, you know, basically this game went one way. (Yadel) Marti and (Pedro) Lazo, they did a very good job against our hitters. They threw a lot of strikes. When we were behind they threw a lot of breaking balls and change-ups. Our hitters didn't make the adjustments today against those guys.
Offensively it's been a weakness the whole tournament. We can't hit with men on base, which has been the case the whole tournament, and today wasn't any different.
The 6th inning we got a man on first. The ball went to Omar Vizquel. He can't take the ball out of his body, he can't find it. We turned a double play. The next pitch was a three-run homer. That basically was the game. We've just got to forget it and come back strong tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Endy Chavez is with us in the press conference this afternoon.
CARLOS ZAMBRANO: I fully agree with the manager. I think that this is just a bad luck streak. We couldn't manage to make the play, and it just didn't materialize the way we had envisioned things and what we wanted to do. And this happens to anyone. It is just bad luck, and we have to give credit where credit is due. They had good pitching today, the Cubans did, good relief in both pitchers, and it just was the game. It didn't go according to plan or what we wanted, so we have to give credit to what is due, and their pitchers deserve the credit. But this is only today's game and we still have some other games to play, and we might win those other games.
Q. What is your opinion of the game today, Endy?
ENDY CHAVEZ: I think most of the time it was the offense, our hitting. We didn't do the job and take the opportunities. I think they pitched great. They threw a great game. I understand everything that happened in the game. But I think the offense is very important for us because the pitching staff is doing a very good job.
LUIS SOJO: Well, those guys, they can't wait to see one fastball, and every time they see one they jump on it. They got a little problem with (Johan) Santana with the change-up. He doesn't have good command of his change-up in the first couple of innings, but after that he was in command. Every time they see a fastball they jump on it and they take advantage of that today.
Q. You arrived here hitting .131 and that was a strong point in your favor with the pitchers, and that was a good job, so what happened?
LUIS SOJO: The relief was not good. We didn't do that good of work regarding relief pitchers, and we have, to keep up with what Santana was doing, what he had done so far. So we have two wins plus other results that have to be considered, and that will be the combination of the situation to decide what the future holds for us.
I've already given you my impression. I've already told you what I believe. It was really interesting to see that in one of the innings. We had three men on base but the boys are not happy with the results. They were not able to hit and get the blast as they can do. We had three very good hitters at one point and they were just not able to do what they had planned and what they wanted to do. They're really as good as we are, as we see ourselves, and we just have to work hard to win the rest of the games. We have Carlos, we have Freddy ahead of us, and we have to go on working hard to make it all the way to San Diego.
Q. I think you just touched on this, but what did Lazo do in that 5th inning to get out of a situation that was a situation that looked like he wouldn't be able to get out of?
LUIS SOJO: Well, I think he's been around for a long time. I think he's the best pitcher they have. That really surprised me because he's supposed to start today, at least that's what we thought. He's supposed to close the game today. He wasn't there, either. So he came in the 5th inning, and this guy has been around for a long time. He had 95-plus, a nasty sinker, and nasty pitching, and he knows what he's doing over there. He's got a lot of confidence. We didn't come through when we needed to, and that was the game right there.
Q. Do you have any idea whether you want to change the line-up for tomorrow and solve this hitting situation that you face that has been an anemic condition? And this question is for Carlos: What do you think about tomorrow's game? It seems that a lot of the hopes are for tomorrow.
LUIS SOJO: Well, we've seen four games already. The results have not been that good, not good for me and not good for my sluggers, for my players. We are going to keep on hitting and playing. The players and the sluggers on my team feel ashamed they have to get it out of their system, they have to take advantage and have to go back and think about what is going to be done tomorrow. We have to ponder the situation, and then after I review and analyze everything I will come to a decision as to what will be done.
CARLOS ZAMBRANO: If you allow me, what I have to do is simply to concentrate hard on what I have to do. I have to clearly think and set my mind on what I have to do. I've been playing in the major leagues for four years now. I do always what I have to do when I play for Houston, when I play for St. Louis for the National division. I do what I do best. I pitch. I let the adrenaline be with me. I set up my mind to have the right intention to keep my cool, to keep calm, to concentrate on what I know how to do. And that's exactly what I have to do tomorrow, to concentrate, to do the correct pitching and play as I always do against Puerto Rico.
What I have to do is simply get the necessary outs, to strike them out, and what I always believe in is let bygones be bygones, leave the past behind and set the eyes on the future and leave the past behind. One has to set the eyes on the future, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

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