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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL C: TORONTOMarch 9, 2009Mike PiazzaTORONTO, ONTARIO MIKE PIAZZA: Italy elevating their game a notch. Just trying to keep them simple, not think too much. You know, we're not doing so much on scouting reports or anything like that. We're just trying to get a good pitch and drive it. And, you know, like I said, they've responded. It's a good win tonight. Q. What's it do for the program in Italy, from what you have seen of it? MIKE PIAZZA: It's a tremendous lift for, you know, not only the kids here now that are learning, but, you know, for, hopefully, the future of the game in Italy. They know that if they play, you know, games and get practice and work against top-notch competition, they're going to get better. So I think it's a win-win all the way around. And I think, like I said, they're excited to be here. They worked so hard, and to see their work finally start to come, you know, ome to payoff a little bit is satisfying. I mean, these guys have been battling and battling. The first day we played Baltimore in a scrimmage game, and we're facing one of their top prospects every inning, and these guys were really overmatched. I said, Hey, it's a quicker game over here, everything is quicker. The ball comes off the bat quicker. The ball comes out of the hand quicker. These guys have better stuff. But be patient. It's not going to happen overnight. Not only are they having fun, but they're getting better. Like I said, the good thing is, even in the Venezuela game, and they're playing up to the competition. And for us to even, you know, have a chance of winning the next game, we just have to do what we're doing now, play good defense. And we got some great pitching tonight and timely hitting. We didn't get timely hitting the first night, but we scattered a bunch of hits and swung the bat pretty well. Q. Describe the bench as the game progressed. Seemed probably around the (indiscernible), it seem to be a lift throughout the events in play with everything. MIKE PIAZZA: We knew that we couldn't let up. That's what we were just trying to tell them all the time, We can't let up. Let's keep putting up insurance runs, as many as possible. And, you know, when Alex had that big base hit, and the sac fly, he made that defensive play, so as you said, it gave everyone a shot of adrenaline. We came in here and we just knew we had to get great pitching with their offense. They got some MVPs and guys that really know how to hit, so... I mean, you can't say enough about the pitching tonight with Danny and Jason. And, again, timely hitting. We didn't let up. We knew we couldn't really let up the pressure offensively. We wanted to keep making things happen, and they did. As I said the other night, I go, Hey, if we're going to make outs, let's make them work for outs. If they're going make nasty pitches on us, let's try to soak up a few nasty pitches, and give the next guy a shot to put the ball in play. Even a guy like Nick Punto, hit three balls on the nose tonight. We're doing good things offensively. Even the night we got shut out, we hit the ball pretty well. We just didn't get that big hit we needed. End of FastScripts |
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