HOUSTON (AP) — Manager Mark DeRosa says his premature comment about the United States having already punched its ticket to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals before facing Italy was just an “overly confident statement” and reiterated Thursday he knew nothing was guaranteed at that point.
DeRosa had made that remark on MLB Network’s “Hot Stove” before the 8-6 loss to Italy on Tuesday that caused the U.S. to lose control of its WBC fate. The U.S. still advanced to a Friday quarterfinal matchup with Canada thanks to Italy’s 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday.
“It’s just an overly confident statement on ‘Hot Stove,’ period, the end,” DeRosa said. “And it’s my fault. I felt good about where we were after Mexico.”
DeRosa also talked about the fresh start the star-studded U.S. team has now that its loss to Italy didn’t prove fatal to its title hopes.
“New lease on life for the boys, certainly,” he said. “I put ourselves in a tough spot. Tip our hat to Vinnie Pasquantino and Italy, truly. Went into that game a little overly confident and got a huge wake-up call.”
DeRosa’s comment prior to the Italy game garnered plenty of scrutiny after that loss, particularly since he had kept usual starters Bryce Harper, Cal Raleigh, Alex Bregman, Brice Turang and Byron Buxton out of his starting lineup. The U.S. needed to beat Italy to guarantee a spot in the quarterfinals. Losing left it subject to a series of tiebreakers, pending the result of Wednesday’s Italy-Mexico game.
He explained those decisions Thursday. DeRosa said he wanted to give starts to Ernie Clement and Paul Goldschmidt because they could end up playing major roles off the bench at some point. He also said he was limited in which pitchers he could use because of “guardrails” set by MLB teams, who typically restrict how much their players throw at the WBC due to injury concerns.
“When I looked at the lineup, I felt confident going in – bottom line,” DeRosa said. “I mean, I also look at it from a player’s perspective. Like, Bryce Harper was struggling a little bit. I know it’s three games, but from the dugout – I played with him for a long time – so it’s like, ‘OK, maybe we get him off his feet a day. We get Goldy in there. We allow (Harper) to work with Sean Casey, Matt Holliday, maybe something clicks. And we get him right back in there and going.’”
DeRosa also had mentioned before Tuesday’s games that some of the U.S. players were “dragging.” The team buses had left later than usual after a Monday night victory over Mexico as players stayed in the locker room celebrating the win.
“Listen, us hanging out in a clubhouse is everything I ever dreamed of creating,” DeRosa said. “You’ve got to buy into this thing super quick and try and create a team. For those players to invite the coaches in and for us to spend time together and enjoy a huge win that we hadn’t had in 20 years was something that, I looked around the room and it was super special to me.
“We did not lose sight of the fact that we had to go out and play well against Italy. They played a hell of a game. They smacked us in the mouth early. They got up big. We went into that game prepared to win it. I think there’s a couple false narratives out there. But, no, I was well aware that we had to win that game based on all the scenarios that could take place.”
The U.S. is making some changes to its pitching staff heading out of pool play and into the quarterfinals.
Lefty Tim Hill and right-handers Will Vest and Tyler Rogers are stepping in for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, Michael Wacha and Ryan Yarbrough. DeRosa said left-hander Matthew Boyd also has left the U.S. team to return to the Chicago Cubs’ spring-training camp.
“And I completely understand that,” DeRosa said. “There’s a lot of pressure from the parent clubs to get these guys ramped up for the start of the season.
“If he’s going to be the opening day starter for the Cubs, we had to guarantee him innings — the game’s got to dictate now. Pool play is a different animal. Trying to weave our way through it from a pitching standpoint, all bets are off now.”
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