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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL D: SAN JUANMarch 7, 2009Leon BoydRod DelmonicoSidney PonsonSAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (Question and answers translated from Spanish.) MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We will start the second and formal interview of the first game of the World baseball Classic. We have with us the members of the Netherlands team. We ask their manager, Mr. Delmonico to give us his comments on today's game. Go on, please. ROD DELMONICO: I was really produced of my guys today. I thought we were ready to play. We came and were aggressive offensively. Our pitching staff did a phenomenal job especially out of the bullpen. We were aggressive in the zone. I felt Sidney has pitched the best game thus far for us, longer than he's gone, and really competed. Both Sidney and Pedro I think proved that somebody should give them a job, because both of them pitched outstanding today. MODERATOR: We start the question sessions. First question. Q. Coming into the bottom of the 9th, ahead one run. You have the top of their lineup. What is going through your mind? LEON BOYD: I didn't know what the lineup was. I wanted to throw strikes, try get out of the inning as fast as possible. Q. You want to throw strikes, which is your trademark. The first thing is you walk the leadoff hitter. Did you think, geez, what did I just do? LEON BOYD: Yeah, it happens. You've got to get it out of your head. You've got to get past that and the next try to get a ground ball and double play. Q. This is for Sidney. Sidney, you're the one guy -- I know there are other guys up there, but you played in the major leagues up there. Can you talk about what this means for the Netherlands to have knocked off a team that's stacked with major league players in their lineup? SIDNEY PONSON: It's a huge thing. Like I told these guys before this thing started, don't believe because they're an all-star team, because they are an all-star team. You have to believe in yourself, go out there and throw strikes and good things will happen. And they did a great job all around. The hitters, the defense behind us. The bullpen did a really good job after they took me out. We have to keep going and hopefully Monday see what happens. Q. You are a Major League Baseball player. You have been in the MLB. You have been under pressure a lot of times. What was the thing happening in your mind at the time when you were throwing some strikes over there? Did you use the experience you have in the MLB for the strikes? SIDNEY PONSON: It wasn't easy because those guys know me. I know them. It was playing cat and mouse today. To tell you the truth I got lucky a couple of times, because I threw the ball down the middle and these guys got a couple ground balls. There were some key double plays today. Like I said, I'd rather be lucky than good sometimes. Today I was lucky. Q. This question is for Kenley Jansen. You made two spectacular plays in this game. Watching it from the crowd, I'm sure the whole team takes credit for it. But when you watch the highlights, there's going to be two of the highlights with you. How do you feel in terms of those two spectacular plays and one of them can be said to won the game. KENLEY JANSEN: I feel good. I'm there to relax, play the game like I always play, stay focused and be relaxed down there and just make a good play. That changed the whole game. We all stayed together and we won? Q. After the first inning, for the manager of Netherlands, after the first inning and those three runs, at any time did it cross your mind that you were going to win this game with exactly those three runs? Or did you just understand that you had to keep trying to make runs or try to hold the Dominican offense that always has been known for being really strong. ROD DELMONICO: With the lineup they had, three runs I didn't think would hold it. Our goal there was to try to extend the lead every inning, try to score as many times as we can. If it was one an inning, one every two innings. No, I did not think we were going to get three runs and that was going to hold it with that club, especially with the wind blowing out to right. We were very fortunate. Our bullpen pitched extremely well. Q. Are you going to fight against the Goliaths? Are you still the David? ROD DELMONICO: I think I told you yesterday that Sidney had a rock in his back pocket. I forgot to tell you that some of our bullpen had rocks in their back pockets, too. And I think that was the key. Q. This is a question to Cordemans. You used the breaking ball many times. Was that your pitching plan? ROB CORDEMANS: Breaking balls up? That's really not ever the plan, the breaking ball up, no. I just got lucky like one time. The rest was down, right? Q. This is for all the players. I'm sure you're familiar with the Dominican lineup. Was there any point in the game when you went, yeah, we can hang with these guys? Was it the three runs in the first inning, or was there any point where you came to believe in yourself? KENLEY JANSEN: In the first two innings we all believed in each other. We told each other that we're going to stick together and we're going to play hard, play hard and just make a surprise to everybody. We stuck together and played hard. That's how the game is. We played hard and we beat them. Q. I know it's fresh, it just happened a few minutes ago. But in terms of Netherlands baseball history, I think you guys just made it. This is as high as it gets, I would presume. What does it feel like? ROD DELMONICO: This feels real good. We've got a lot of baseball left. It's a great moment for us because it was able to be played on TV in the Netherlands and Curacao and so a lot of people back home were able to watch the game. It gave us great exposure, not only in our country but nationwide. It's a big moment for us. We're just starting the tournament. Our goal now is to get to Miami. It has been. So we've got to focus on enjoying this. Whoever wins after tonight, now we've got to focus tomorrow at practice and get ready for Monday. Q. How much do you think their unfamiliarity with you helped you guys with your success today? ROB CORDEMANS: I think big time because we've never really faced them. I'd never faced them. I don't throw 90 miles an hour, so I've got to put something else in there, change-up. It probably helps, yes. LEON BOYD: I went out there and just wanted to hit my spots. Trying to get a little movement. They're used to seeing the low 90's. I guess we just gave them something a little different. Q. Question for the manager. What opinion do you have of the Puerto Rico team that is going to face Panama and may be your rival next Monday? ROD DELMONICO: I think we have to take it a step at a time. Right now we're going to wait to see who wins the game. Whoever wins the game we'll start preparing for. We've scouted both teams already, so we have some information on both teams. Right now we'll take it a step at a time, see who wins, and then start preparing for that tomorrow at practice. Q. You guys celebrated like you had won the World Series. Did it feel like that? And does it still feel like that now? SIDNEY PONSON: Did you ever see Cuba win a game and see how they celebrate? It's passion. It's like everybody loves this game. So that's why we go there. That's the way we play games. If they won they would have done the same thing. Whoever wins today the second game, they're going to do the same thing. Why not enjoy it? We just won the game. We upset one of the best teams in the WBC. Everybody knows it. I think everybody in here will tell you the same thing. It was a big thing today, especially for the Netherlands team. ROD DELMONICO: What you've got to understand is these guys have played together in Curacao and Holland for a long time. We've got guys who have played together for 10 years. They care about each other and pull for one another. They actually love one another. It was a big win, an emotional win. A lot of passion out there. You saw guys pulling for one another in the dugout the entire game. It was not a celebration, but more of a passion and love for one another. Q. For anybody, what does this do for baseball in the Netherlands? Does this put you on the map in the world for baseball? SIDNEY PONSON: I don't know. I never played there, but hopefully young kids in the Netherlands and Curacao, Aruba, will see that the Netherlands just beat the Dominicans. It's kind of hard because soccer is the main thing in the Netherlands and hopefully this will help to get more kids. There probably is a lot of talent in the Netherlands, but they don't know it yet because they like soccer. Hopefully it will be a good thing for them. Q. How difficult is it to get good chemistry among different players with different backgrounds? What is the key to managing this team? ROD DELMONICO: When we first started this, we wanted to get, have the best 28 players that we could put together. I think we got the 28 best. These guys pulled it together very quickly. We had three weeks to pull 28 players together and play as a team. I think that was the key. Our guys bought into our practices. They bought into getting out there and getting after it. And that was really the key. You've got to look at the players that we have on this team. They want to win. They played together as a team. Today was a team win, both offensively and defensively. I think it's the kind of players that we have on this ball club. Q. Who is going to pitch tomorrow or the next game? ROD DELMONICO: We'll start Rick VandenHurk from the Marlins, that happens to play for the Netherlands right now. Q. Rod, was it planned that Rob would play more than one inning? ROD DELMONICO: Who? Q. Rob Cordemans. ROD DELMONICO: We thought he could go through the lineup at least once, and that would give us two or three innings. He's got the most experience on our staff. He's been pitching with the Dutch team over 10 years and has pitched some big ball games. He was the first guy out of the pen to give us an opportunity to hold them down, and he did a phenomenal job. Q. Congratulations. The one who wins is the one who celebrates. How much time have you concentrated practicing for this World Baseball Classic? ROD DELMONICO: We've actually been working at it for two months. We practiced as a month in Holland. While we practiced as a group in Holland, Bam Bam was taking the guys in Curacao, and they had probably been working out for probably close to three months. Collectively we've been out about three weeks, three and a half weeks. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but neither did anyone else. Q. Rod, can you talk about the situation where you had two men on and you were able to get out of it twice. You had twice that same situation. Talk a little bit about going through that. ROB CORDEMANS: The first time I went in it was Tejada. I think I threw a ball first, fastball, and then I got my changeup. It was just a little bit out. I got a ground ball and made a double play. So it was great. The second time, first and second. Who was hitting again? Do you know? Again? So I got a line on the fastball outside. So -- Q. Before today, what was the biggest game you ever closed out? LEON BOYD: Actually this is the first time I ever closed. Q. Great game to close. LEON BOYD: I'm normally a starter. Q. For any of the players besides Sidney. And I ask this with all due respect. How many of their players do you think had heard of you guys before today? ROB CORDEMANS: It doesn't really matter. It's even better that they hadn't heard of us, because we can do our own stuff, it's maybe a little bit different than they had seen before. So it's probably even better that they didn't know us. End of FastScripts |
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