|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL BMarch 5, 2013Hensley MeulensJonathan SchoopTAICHUNG, TAIWAN THE NETHERLANDS – 4 THE MODERATOR: We have manager, Hensley Meulens and infielder Jonathan Schoop, and pitcher Rob Cordemans. Hensley, you've had a great tournament, and it looks like you're moving on to Tokyo. Congratulations. Your thoughts? HENSLEY MEULENS: Thank you. Again, we had a great pitching performance today, and we got it from the best pitcher in Dutch history international. Robbie pitched a great inning, five innings, no runs, and that was the key to our win today. I think the guys scored early and gave them a little bit of breathing room. But this guy to my left had a big two‑run homer to kind of put the icing on the cake. Oxspring came in and shut us down as the second pitcher for Australia. But we continued to do a great job with (Indiscernible) closing out there. So, again, it was a great performance all the way around from the entire team. Q. Jonathan, you hit one to left field. I guess right field is the home run field here at the stadium, and the wind has been blowing in from left all week long, but you got one up there into left field. JONATHAN SCHOOP: Yeah, I got one. I tried to give the team a little (Indiscernible). Q. You went out there and shut them down early and got the lead and were able to keep the lead. What did you have working today? ROBBIE CORDEMANS: Well, as usual, my changeup is working, so if I don't have that, it's just tough for me. I don't throw a 90 or high 80, so I need that. And I guess it was working today. Q. Mr.Cordemans, we know that you can play in Taiwan, and one of our pitchers and catchers are your former teammates. And a lot of people know you in Taiwan. How do you feel about that? And Mr.Schoop, before this you were in spring training in Major Leagues. On your team there is a Taiwanese pitcher, have you heard anything from him? Thank you. ROBBIE CORDEMANS: Yeah, I've seen him pitch. He's been doing great. When I was here in 2007, he was the star of the team anyways. So it's nothing new for me. And the pitcher, Eddie‑‑ to me, it's Eddie. Yeah, he can pitch really well, and I've known him for years and it's not surprising to see him here. He's doing good again. It's a good Taiwanese team. JONATHAN SCHOOP: I think I know that guy. I asked him (Indiscernible). That's all I can say. Q. In the ninth inning, almost made a home run. How do you feel then? If you meet Chinese Taipei in the second round, do you have the confidence to beat Chinese Taipei? HENSLEY MEULENS: Yes, I think early on in the game, it would have been a three‑run homer to tie the game. The wind was kind of calm. Even with that impact early in the game the ball was traveling out of the ballpark. As Jonathan had some hitters in the second inning, there was not as much wind. But around the sixth or seventh inning, the wind picked up and was starting to blow again. That's why the ball was hit high, and that's why the ball hung up there, and gave them a chance to catch the ball. We were lucky that ball didn't go out. Second part of the question, I think if we face Taiwan again, we'd have to have a better game plan than we did the first time we faced them in this round to beat them. They are a very good team. They capitalized on some mistakes we made in the field and pitching‑wise, and we have to try to minimize those mistakes in the second round if we face them to come out victorious. Q. Related to the last question, there is also a possibility you might face Korea in the next round. You guys beat them 5‑0. Do you have a different game plan in the second round? My second question is if you face the Korean team again, are you going to ask for a scouting report on the team? HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, thank you. First of all, I think that game is over. We have to prepare to, if we face them again, to have a game plan to attack them. The pitching part of the game plan worked out in the first game. As far Sadowski goes, he's in spring training with the Giants. He was with the Giants before he came to Korea, and he just gave me some tips on some of the players. I think that was valuable for us in the first game. Q. It seems that Netherlands is definitely going to Japan. What was your impression of Japan's team? And secondly, you have experience playing in Japan, so if you're competing against Japan, how will you prepare for the game? HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, we had our mindset on this one first. Now that we are going to the second round, we'll turn our attention to them. I think Japan is a very good team. They're the champions two times in a row in this classic. And they have a very, very good team. So we'll have to definitely play very good to beat them, and we'll have to go do some reports, scouting reports and see how they've played in the first round over there and see what kind of game plan we're going to come up with to beat them in the game if we face them. The other part is I played three years in Japan. We have Wladimir Balentien who is playing in Japan currently. The last two years he was the home run king in Japan. Andruw Jones is playing in Japan this year. He's doing spring training over there. So we rely on what information he can give us to try to have a game plan against their pitchers and against their hitters. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Cuba as well, if you will be going to Tokyo? HENSLEY MEULENS: Cuba's another quality team. We've faced them a lot over the years. We played in an exhibition game against them over here before this round started and beat them 5‑0. But make no mistake. That's a very good team over there. They played well in the first round. We have a lot of reports on them, and they have a lot of reports on us. We just have to see how they play these games over there in the first round to come up with a game plan to also attack them. They're a very, very aggressive, defensive team. They like to swing it early, and we just have to pitch well, and calm them down in order to quiet their bats and to give our offense a chance to score and to beat them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|