WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - COLOMBIA VS MEXICO

March 11, 2023

Jorge Alfaro

Chase Field

Team Colombia

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Nabil pitching today, first game obviously a really important contest for you guys. You played with him last year a little bit. What about Nabil do you think makes him ready for this moment?

JORGE ALFARO: One of the good things that you can see from Nabil, he's not afraid of anybody. He goes out there and he goes to compete. And he gives us a chance, gives us an opportunity to -- many pitches, many innings that he can throw he's going to do it for the team.

He's one of the guys, he's not afraid to carry the team on his shoulders. He's going to go out there and compete.

Q. You're facing Urias today. He's one of the top pitchers in the majors the past couple of years. What are you guys expecting from him?

JORGE ALFARO: It's no secret, he's one of the good ones in the game, best ones. And that doesn't mean that we're afraid. We're not going to go out there thinking of that. We're going to go out there, play baseball.

This game, you never know what's going to dictate what's going to happen. So he's good. That's fine, but we're going to go out there and compete.

We are not going to think too much about that, just trying to keep our plan and try to find a good pitch. Try to get on base, move the runner, do the little things. At some point we know that something good's going to happen if we just stay with the plan.

Q. You guys have only been together for a couple days as a team, played a couple of exhibitions. What's your feel from inside the clubhouse how close this group is?

JORGE ALFARO: You can tell when you walk in, everybody's happy, everybody's smiling, talking. I mean, the vibe in there is very positive. We know each other a lot.

So we play against, we play together too. So we kind of have like -- it's not like a new team. And we're hungry. We're going to go out there and compete. We're going to go out there and give 100 percent for our country.