We really went at it hard like professionals. They deserve the credit. I’d rather give them credit than make excuses.

Daniel deserves all the credit. We had several scoring opportunities to break the game open. We didn’t do it but our pitching staff came through.

If you’re looking for the best players at this time, you can be sure to find them on the Dominican team.

(The WBC) is going to be every four years, but I don’t know if in four years we’ll be able to put together a team like we have right now. This is a pretty special...

Willie has made it clear that the job is out there for the taking.

Cabrera just stepped up and did a great job.

I believe that part of what the World Classic did was remind people that baseball talent comes from all over the world. There are a lot of people playing this game.

This park brings back good and bad memories. We fell short, but it was good to make it here. Our expectations were very high because of the team we had, but I also understood that...

I’m very happy with the performance of the guys here. And everybody had a chance to play.

It is a sign of what we can do.

They flat out outplayed us.

I don’t want the word patriotism being brought up over here because of these guys being professional and (some) other teams are not. Because when you have $100 million in the bank and a contract...

Manny is sure. He was one of the first to sign the papers last year.

We can feel the confidence he brings.

If you’re going to get hurt, you’re going to get hurt, whether you’re in spring training or the World Baseball Classic. But I want everybody to understand, we’re not going out there only trying to...

It’s a shame, but Pedro won’t pitch in the Classic. I met with Pedro to talk about this; he did everything he could, and he was ready to join the team later in the competition,...

Just because he’s tied for the league lead, that doesn’t mean you can’t run on him. So what are you going to do? He made a good throw. You gave to give credit to him.

The kid has shown that he’s not intimidated at all. He’s got terrific stuff. I think he can go against any lineup in this tournament.

We definitely know he’s not going to be available for the first round. The priority is that he’s healthy first. He does want to participate, and we do want him to participate.

I would start spring training a week earlier so the players would get five or six exhibition games in before starting.

I think we could play a lot better than what we played. I think we should have scored at least 12 runs.

Everybody who had the desire to play prepared themselves for this tournament. Our guys saw enough pitches. They had enough at-bats. No excuses.

The crowd did help us. We have a big Dominican community here. But I think the game was so good, the players weren’t even paying attention to the fans. They were focused on the game.