WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL D - NETHERLANDS VS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

March 8, 2026

Andruw Jones

LoanDepot Park

Team Netherlands

Postgame Press Conference

Dominican Republic 12, Netherlands 1

Q. You have won everything in baseball. You are a Hall of Famer. On paper it's different than seeing the Dominican Republic in real life. Your impressions on the game and the team.

ANDRUW JONES: They have a very powerful lineup. From the first all the way down to the ninth could hit a homer. We were behind a little bit at the beginning. We scored one run. But what I tell you; they're all big leaguers, and they faced these young pitchers that are still in high school, and with a rampage they are going to take advantage of that.

Q. Yesterday you got a great win; today was the flip side. How can you overcome that? What's the mindset for the next match?

ANDRUW JONES: Well, there's nothing we can do about the loss. Tomorrow will be another day. Baseball must go on. Everyone knows what they did wrong. They just have to improve for the next game.

Q. You have vast experience in the majors. Do you remember any powerful lineup like this one?

ANDRUW JONES: I have seen so many good lineups, but this kind of lineup in a Classic, wow, that's too much. I mean, they are very powerful. I think that the Dominican Republic and the United States have the most powerful lineups. On the paper, of course. Everyone has to make outs, run and hit, but they have the best lineups in this Classic on paper.

Q. What stands out to you about the Israel roster?

ANDRUW JONES: I haven't looked at it yet. We were trying to focus a game at a time. We're going to start looking at it tonight. We've got a day off tomorrow. We'll see how we're going to attack them.

Every game we're trying to put a strategy out as to how we're going to go about the game, and we'll see what happens.

Like I said, every team this year deserves to be here. They're all good teams. Some are better than others. But we've still got to play clean baseball and make things happen.

Q. This loss means that you are almost out of the qualifiers, out of the group. How are the players feeling? How are you planning to motivate them for next season?

ANDRUW JONES: Do you think that we're already out? Well, what can I tell you? We're going to prepare ourselves for the next game. This happens; the other team played better than us. We have to learn what we did wrong in order to learn for the next time.