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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONEMarch 8, 2006Lenny DiNardoMatt GalanteMike PiazzaPOOL D: ORLANDO, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Matt, just try to discuss tonight's game. COACH MATT GALANTE: It's tough game when you face pitchers like this. This early in the spring. Freddy Garcia was right on top of his game. Probably has as good a slider as you're going to have mid-season. Betancourt came in and was throwing real well. Rodriguez finished up. And it's tough. It's three quality major league pitchers. We got two hits. Tough to win games like that. But we tried to stay close where we could get a couple on base and one big hit. We just didn't do it. THE MODERATOR: Great. Mike, thoughts about Venezuelan pitching tonight? MIKE PIAZZA: Well, I think it's evident that they threw their best at us tonight, and they were on top of their game. Defensively obviously we gave them a few runs, which against a team like Venezuela, you're not going to get away with. On one hand we're disappointed, obviously, we didn't get anything going. Last night I was a little concerned about, tonight I should say, and then last night obviously scoring a lot of runs, it's unusual we came out a little bit flat offensively. But obviously when you're facing guys like they put out there tonight, that's understandable. So what can you say? They put their best at us and they threw very well. THE MODERATOR: Lenny, your thoughts on facing the lineup that Venezuela brought tonight. LENNY DINARDO: It's a great lineup. I don't really go out there thinking that the lineup is better than what I had to throw at them, but I felt like our scouting report was good. I tried to threw my best game at them this time of year and they put the ball in play. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for game-specific questions first. A few of those and then other general questions. Q. This is for Matt. Matt, if you had gotten the big hit in the third inning with the bases loaded, one out, do you think it might have been a little bit different game? COACH MATT GALANTE: Certainly I think that opportunity was there for us and you got to give Freddy credit. He faced two pretty good hitters and made a great pitch on the inside part of the plate to Menechino and one of those tough sliders on the shoe tops on Frank Catalanotto, so you got to give him credit for that. And if we would have taken advantage of it, I am sure it could have been different, but we didn't. As Mike said, you play tough teams like Venezuela or a team we're going to play tomorrow, and we can't be as sloppy. We gave up three runs. We helped them get three runs. Any time you do that with a good team, they're going to take advantage of it and they did. Q. Mike, big wins against Australia and today it's different. What do you think in Italy the Italian fans are really following this game and rooting for the team? MIKE PIAZZA: Well, it's tough to say. I think that the reason why we are playing, I mean, the players of Italian decent, is we're trying to get some interest to try to grow the game in Italy. And it has to start somewhere. If we gain a few more fans because of our participation, then that's what we want to do. It takes time. Baseball in Venezuela didn't develop over one day. One year even. It was along many years of history. It started with the children. You have to start at a grass roots level, and that's the only way baseball in Italy will grow. And it starts with something like this and but it does take time. So whatever fans are watching us, we're honored that they are following us and hopefully we'll play a little better for them tomorrow. Q. Lenny, can you talk about your approach tonight? It didn't seem like you had your best control. Just can you talk about your approach. LENNY DINARDO: My approach was to be as aggressive as possible in the zone. Against these hitters. You're right when I didn't really have the command that I feel like I needed to have against this lineup, but it's part of the game. You're not going to go out with your best stuff every time. I'm just looking forward to the next outing. Hopefully I can pick it up a little bit. Q. I want to know what do you think about tomorrow's game against Dominican Republic. Because if you win, you got a good chance to make it to the next round. COACH MATT GALANTE: Again, it's going to be a tough game. We know that, we knew that the Venezuela team and Dominican team are very strong teams. But we feel confident that we have the kind of club that can bounce back after a game like tonight. That's part of the game. You have good games and games that are not so good. We feel we can be competitive, and I told you this before, if we can compete in games, we've got chances to win. So we never go into a game thinking we're not going to win it, because we're confident enough in the ability that we have and I'm sure our guys will come out feeling that way tomorrow. Q. Matt, who is your starting pitcher tomorrow? COACH MATT GALANTE: Tomorrow will be Tony Fiore. And just one thing about starting pitching in this series and especially Lenny tonight, you have to understand that this is the first outing he's had all spring. And when we talk about command, you're probably not going to have your best command in your first outing. So I thought he kept us in the game and that's all we really want from this starters is keep us in the ballgame. Same thing with Tony tomorrow, it's going to be a first outing for him. He had one inning in the Tiger game. But that's going to be rough. And we know that. But it's the same for all the teams, so we just go out and try to keep ourselves in the game and get a big hit and get ahead. Q. This is for Mike and Lenny, obviously it was a pretty partisan crowd tonight in favor of Venezuela out there. But did you guys enjoy playing in that kind of lively environment with the crowd at the park tonight? LENNY DINARDO: I enjoy every day I put on a uniform and am able to compete. There was obviously more Venezuela fans out there, but at the same time it's good for the game to have this many fans and it was enjoyable. MIKE PIAZZA: Well, I totally agree with that. But again, I think that especially for the Italian baseball fans, I mean, they may -- it may not happen this year or the next World Classic but maybe in 20, 25 years from now, if we have the fan response like that, then we have, we'll have accomplished what we set out to do. So like I said, we're looking down the line and hopefully one day we really love our Italian fans that have come here to follow us, but we know that our goal is to try to increase that, and that's what I think the whole idea of this tournament is. We'll see where it is 25 years from now. Hopefully we're still all around for that, but nonetheless, that's what we're working for. And with the kid that pitched tonight, if we can get a couple of national Italian guys to pitch in the major leagues, that's what we want to do to inspire the children of Italy to believe that they can compete at a major league level. So that's obviously what our goals are. Q. Just want to ask Mike, a lot of pitchers have had reservations about playing in this tournament, but as a hitter, do you think you're going to benefit from seeing such sharp pitching this early in the season? MIKE PIAZZA: Well, if tonight is benefiting, I don't know what not benefiting would be. Actually, yeah, I mean, you know, as far as I'm concerned I felt like the stuff that I saw tonight personally was stuff I would see in June, July and August. So it is going to accelerate your development at least at this point in the season. So I look at that as a positive personally from a season standpoint. Once you get into April facing this type of competition and these type of major league arms, this early and the stuff that they're throwing and obviously the tenacity and as determined as they were tonight, I'm looking at that as something from a personal standpoint to get myself ready for the season as well. THE MODERATOR: Great. Thank you gentlemen. We appreciate it.
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