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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONEMarch 8, 2006Stubby ClappJustin MorneauPOOL B: PHOENIX, ARIZONA Q. Justin, Stubby, you guys have both been part of -- parts of big Canadian wins in the past. Can you kind of say where this ranks up there for you guys? STUBBY CLAPP: Go ahead. You first, buddy. JUSTIN MORNEAU: This is, I mean, this is right up there. I mean, the game, you know, we beat Mexico to go to the Olympics was a pretty big deal, too, but this is a little bigger stage. We didn't get a lot of coverage down there when that was going on. But, you know, this -- I mean, I'm still smiling. It was an amazing game. We kind of got a little bit of a scare at the end, but I was as excited as I've ever been on the field. STUBBY CLAPP: It's the best of the best, you know. You got to come to play every pitch, and that's important. And I think when you're facing guys like Dontrelle Willis and Al Leiter, those guys have some good stuff. If you come ready to swing at every pitch and attack instead of being on the defensive side of things, positive things can happen. Q. A game like this where on paper your team supposedly doesn't match up to the US team. They're getting on the publicity. They're almost guaranteed to make it to the next round. You're going to have to struggle supposedly to make it round two. With all that combined, what goes through your heart right now when you realize you have beaten the favorites? STUBBY CLAPP: We got to win tomorrow. There's obviously some odds and ends that can factor in that will get us through, too, but we won today. That game is over now. We focus for tomorrow and take care of business. Q. Do you understand the (inaudible)? STUBBY CLAPP: Yeah. They were saying something like we can lose by two or win by one. I don't know. Someone was saying the odds. And to be honest with you, if you win, you win. Q. What's the run differential? STUBBY CLAPP: I think it's two runs right now. Q. If you lose? STUBBY CLAPP: If we lose by two, we still get in. Q. (Inaudible.) JUSTIN MORNEAU: We don't want to think about option B. It's sometimes better to be the underdog. You know, they're the favorites. They have all the pressure on them. We just come in. We're not -- we got eight lefties in the lineup or whatever we got. We're not supposed to be able to -- it's supposed to be a leftie-leftie match-up. You got one of the best pitchers, won the most games in the big leagues last year starting for them. We didn't believe all that. We feel like if we can hit, we can hit right-handed or left-handed. A lot goes into that. But we got a little momentum. Stubby had the big triple in the beginning of the game. All of a sudden, yesterday we took six innings to score a run. Tonight, we kind of just carried over from the end of the game yesterday and a lot of momentum. We were still pretty excited. We had a scare last night, but we ended up coming out with a win. We just kind of kept it going. Q. Justin, you said that you're as excited as you ever were. You were as excited on the field as you've ever been. But you guys just both talked about having to win tomorrow. I think the way it works is the only way you advance with a loss is if you lose one-nothing. But how hard is it going to be to let go of this by tomorrow night and refocus on a game that you absolutely have to win to advance? JUSTIN MORNEAU: We can sit around and smile about, but that's about it. But once we get on the field tomorrow, obviously we'll try to keep that good feeling going, that momentum we have right now. But at the same time, baseball is long. It's nine innings. There's a lot of outs. A lot of things can happen in the game just because you have the momentum in the first inning or second inning like we had today. It almost slipped away on us today. So tomorrow from the first out to the last out is all that matters now, so ... Q. Do you guys think playing in the close game last night and having to sweat it out the way you did helped you out today? STUBBY CLAPP: Definitely. I think last night was an eye-opener right away. That was important actually to have to struggle a little bit just to remind everybody that anything can happen in international baseball. It's cut-throat baseball. That's the way baseball should be played. And, you know, if you lose, you go home. That's an important factor when it comes down to playing this game. JUSTIN MORNEAU: I think the other thing that helped us yesterday, we got -- we had six at bats almost every other lineup. Anytime -- it's early in the spring still and anytime it's early, you usually only get two at bats in a game and you kind of get broken in. But last night, we got a lot of at bats. We saw pitchers that aren't -- they kind of got us up to the level to get ready for today. They had some good throwers yesterday. I'm not saying that. But at the same time, it's not the same caliber as a Dontrelle Willis and a Huston Street, that sort of thing. We got a lot of at bats and we got some confidence going towards the end of the game, and I think that helped us a lot today. Q. (Inaudible.) JUSTIN MORNEAU: I think we're pretty excited for this game, no matter what. We didn't really need anything extra. We had Canada across our chest, and we're playing the favorite in their building, and that sort of thing. And it doesn't really take a lot to get you going for a game like this. Q. Just to continue. What was going through your head when Veritek hit that grand slam? JUSTIN MORNEAU: Uh-oh. I mean, you know, you try and keep talking positive to yourself. You come into the dugout, and I look up we're still up 8 to 6. Now the bases are cleared. There's no pressure. The pressure is gone, that sort of thing. And, you know, sitting there telling myself we're still ahead. We're still winning this game. We come in the dugout and try to stay positive in there and talk each other up and let us not forget we're still winning the game. Q. Stubby, does this one mean more to you than the victory over the United States at the Pan Ams in '99? STUBBY CLAPP: It does right now definitely. This is best of the best for level of competition. And that victory in '99 was important at that time. But as you remember, we didn't get to advance onto the Olympics from that tournament. That was a great tournament. That was a great win at that time, but right now this is very important for this team and this organization and to move on to the next round. Q. For both of you guys. Was it difficult at all to know that the plan for the pitching today was not to use Reitsma, not to use Crain, not to use the big guns. When you're holding on to a two-run lead in the 5th and 6th inning knowing that it's going to be -- they got the job done, but knowing those big guys aren't going to be coming in, was that tough at all? STUBBY CLAPP: I think probably tougher on Ernie than us. That's his call. We're just there on the defensive part of it. When you got the big guns sitting in there, I'm sure that's toiled through his mind, but he's also got to think ahead, too. JUSTIN MORNEAU: Everyone's on this team for a reason. Everybody's a good player. A lot of guys down there, especially the way Steve Green when he came in at the end. He looked real confident and he was throwing strikes, and he looked really good. There's a lot of guys down there that can throw the ball. I think Mathieson came in. I think the first pitch he threw was 96. I kind of looked up there and went, Oh. He kind of got out there. I wasn't too worried about it. I have confidence in all our teammates. THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
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