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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONE


March 8, 2006


Tony Fiore

Thomas Gregorio

Alessandro Maestri

Mark Saccomanno


POOL D: ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Q. Who had better stuff tonight?
MARK SACCOMANNO: Both their stuff looked pretty good to me. I think those guys were all on. I'm not completely sure if they all played winter ball, but I know a lot of those guys play winter ball. So they come in right now and are in good shape, mid-season form. And they looked like it out there tonight.
A lot of our guys, it was pretty early in the year for us, as hitters, seeing pitchers and as pitchers throwing pitches. I think that they definitely looked like they were in shape and ready to go tonight.
Q. You faced both of them, right. Talk about Freddy Garcia first. What was most impressive about how he pitched? Was there one particular pitch?
MARK SACCOMANNO: I saw a lot of fastballs tonight and I was sitting dead red, I was sitting on the fastball. I got a silder one time. But other than that they threw a lot of hard stuff and they gave us pitches to hit. It was just our offense just didn't show up tonight. That was basically it.
Q. What was different tonight than last night?
MARK SACCOMANNO: I don't want to take anything away from the Australia pitchers, but these guys are throwing a lot harder. And they just hit their spots and felt like they just pitched well. They pitched well. They were throwing hard and hit their spots, it make it's tough on every guy that goes up there.
Q. Talk about the start tonight, your first start this spring. Was it kind of hard to get going out there?
TONY FIORE: Not really. I don't think anything was more difficult than anybody else. Every one has pretty much gone through the same thing. Working out and have a scrimmage game. I pitched for an inning against Detroit. So I think I'm in the same boat as anybody else.
Q. What's the mindset for you? This is definitely not like a spring training game.
TONY FIORE: It's definitely different but it's been well done. MLB did a great job. The Italian team from Italy did a real nice job for us. It has been first class. It's been a really nice experience.
Q. When you come into it, I mean, when you get to your level, any player does, when you're out there, do you really want to win, you really want to advance, what is it?
TONY FIORE: Of course. We didn't come into this thinking we're going to just -- we want to win. We think we can. We got enough guys on this team that they're all professionals. We have all been, even some of the guys from Italy, they're all professionals, we expect to compete.
Q. Talk about what's facing you tomorrow.
TONY FIORE: I don't know. Wow, what a lineup. But I've been, most of my years have been at AAA, but I've been doing this for 15 years. I'm not going to go and sit there and go, you know, I'm beat already.
They have got an unbelievable lineup but if I'm on my game, I expect to be tough to hit.
Q. So it's a good opportunity for you?
TONY FIORE: Yeah. Absolutely.
Q. Do you feel like you're breaking new ground for Italian baseball?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Well, I don't know. I'm trying to see how to answer that.
Q. How do you feel about trying to grow baseball in Italy?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: How do I feel?
Q. Yeah, how is it going and do you feel you're playing a big role in it?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Like first pitcher to sign a contract, professional contract. So it's kind of something that is a big responsibility.
But I am happy for that. I think also I'm ready for that. And I hope that in a few years or so other guys can be here and play.
Q. How did you begin playing the game?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Oh, just my brother. He's older than me, so I followed him. I always follow him. Even in school and also with baseball too.
Q. Was he a pitcher?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: No, he was a catcher.
Q. Was he pretty good?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: My brother? Yeah. He's pretty good. But now he stopped.
Q. Is he over here now?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah. He came yesterday.
Q. About the game today, just how do you rate this lineup that you have to face with teams like Venezuela, and then the Dominican Republic?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah, it's tough. But I also read about the phrase today like "shock the world." So maybe we can do that. Because you know, nobody trusts in our skills here. But we're starting to grow as a baseball country. And it's been pretty good, so.
Q. They put you in a very tough position tonight. Bringing you in with the bases loaded?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah, it was a tough position. But I like this situation, so.
Q. Were you a little nervous?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah. Not too much. I was, like, lucky on first pitch and but after that it was tough.
Q. Because that could have gotten away from you after that first pitch and things could have kind of snowballed. It's good that you shut the door there.
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah. Right.
Q. How would you describe baseball in Italy? Where is the game? How popular is baseball?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Oh, it's not very popular. It's all soccer in Italy. And everybody talks about soccer and maybe some basketball there, too. But also with this we'll start growing up people. And there's a contract with television coming. You cannot see all of the games, but we're starting to grow it up.
Q. Do you think you're behind pitchers who grew up in places where baseball is played all the time? Do you have some catching up to do?
ALESSANDRO MAESTRI: Yeah, maybe they play like every day. So it's different. But I got a pretty good coach, I've had pretty good coaches in my career. So I think that I'm ready to go to the next level.
Q. (Inaudible)?
THOMAS GREGORIO: Yesterday, we executed. We got ahead of pitchers. Venezuela is a great team. They got some good players over there. It's a little different from where Italy is just coming along. But I think it's a great thing to be bringing baseball to Italy and for the guys that play there as well to be a part in helping that.
But Venezuela has a good team. We just fell behind hitters. Pitchers were trying to be aggressive. And for a lot of these guys it's just like the first or second spring training game and it's tough when you're going out there to execute and try and stretch yourself out.
But the biggest difference is that we just fell behind hitters. They hit one ball really hard. But other than that we made a few mistakes fielding-wise and they shut us out pitching. I think that was the biggest thing.
Q. What is the difference between yesterday's game and today's game? How do you think things went differently?
THOMAS GREGORIO: You want to know why? Why they went differently? The difference was their pitching was excellent tonight. They had excellent pitchers. We were aggressive yesterday as we were today. But Freddy Garcia was good and Silva came in and the way he was throwing, that's midseason form right there. You know. I never faced him before, but he's got excellent stuff.
Their pitchers were aggressive, they got ahead and threw strikes. Just the bottom line is they shut us out offensively.
Q. What are your expectations now? Is it a must-win situation?
THOMAS GREGORIO: Of course we have to win. And we're going to approach them the same way we approached Venezuela and Australia. We're going to be aggressive and try to get ahead and get runners on base and do little things to win the game. Every team is different and you got to approach it that way, be aggressive and play hard.
Q. What is the most important thing about facing the Dominican Republic? What worries you?
THOMAS GREGORIO: Nothing worries me. If it worries me, I shouldn't be playing the game. Every day is a different day. They got some excellent hitters, they got a major league lineup up there. But that's a big difference but nothing is going to worry us. You got to be aggressive, you got to get strike one and you got to get ahead. That's the bottom line.

End of FastScripts...

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