WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: QUARTERFINALS 1 - KOREA VS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

March 13, 2026

Ji Hyun Ryu

LoanDepot Park

Team Korea

Postgame Press Conference

Dominican Republic 10, Korea 0

Q. What do you think of the game today, and how do you feel right now?

JI HYUN RYU: Yes. To talk about today's game, Team DR proved themselves that they are the world's best. We have a few players who are in their late 30s. Other than those, most players are pretty young, and I think it was a great opportunity for our young players. And through this experience, I hope that this experience becomes a good step for our young players and they use this experience for their better future.

We finished the first round pretty well, so we were looking forward to playing this game too, but Team DR was stronger.

Q. I have two questions. How are you going to compliment Team Korea going forward? And secondly, and this was the last game for Korea. The second question is: So the pitcher Ryu, the starting pitcher, player Ryu -- apparently, this is going to be his last game. What do you think about that?

JI HYUN RYU: So for the first question, I don't think it's appropriate to talk about this right now. I am contracted to the WBC, so I don't think I can be involved in planning for the future for Team Korea. I think that depends on the contract.

And then for player Ryu, I really want to thank him. Ever since I became the manager for Team Korea in February, he wanted to be involved on Team Korea, and he provided lots of support to the team. And for him to represent Korea at that age, I think, is very admirable. And this may be his last game. I hope that he still brings something out of this. I admire the fact that he tried his best, regardless of any situations.

Q. Okay. I have two questions, the importance of facing a powerful team such as the Dominican Republic and facing Albert Pujols, a future Hall of Famer.

JI HYUN RYU: I'm not understanding the second question. Could you repeat the second question, please?

Q. Two questions: Facing the Dominican Republic, which is a very powerful team, and facing an opposing manager, Albert Pujols, who is a future Hall of Famer.

JI HYUN RYU: Yes. I think still making it to the quarterfinals is very meaningful, and I think we were able to see some performance discrepancy between each players. I think we need better pitchers.

Q. And not as a manager for a team, but as a baseball enthusiast, what do you think Korean baseball should do to develop better pitchers?

JI HYUN RYU: There are about three to four starting pitchers in KBO League, and for us to be more competitive in the global scene, we need to provide more opportunities for athletes, especially when we are participating in global championships or global games.

I do see that Korean pitchers need to improve their pitching, and I think we need better infrastructure to nurture and cultivate better pitchers in Korea.

Q. You had the chance to face two of the most powerful lineups of the World Classic, Japan and the DR. You had the same result. For you, what was the most difficult lineup to face and as a manager to make decisions?

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JI HYUN RYU: For the first round, we had to face Japan, who was the champion of 2023 WBC, and Japan is also one of the strongest teams.

We also played against Dominican Republic, who is also one of the strongest teams. Especially for the Dominican Republic team, they had great pitchers. They had great strategy, and then they also -- from their first through the fifth pitcher, they were all very strong, and I could feel how powerful the team was.

Q. You started the press conference by saying that the Dominican Republic showed that they were the best in the world. Can you confirm that the DR is better than Japan?

JI HYUN RYU: Yes. So Dominican Republic is going to semifinals, and they will be competing with great teams. And after that, yes, so semifinals will be -- they have to compete with lots of powerful teams, so they should be able to figure out where they stand.

(FastScripts by ASAP Sports)