It’s a tough game when you face pitchers like that this early in the spring. Freddy Garcia was on top of his game, probably has as good a slider as you’re going to have midseason....

I’m holding that back because if I need him the second game, I’m going to use him to try to win.

I asked him to do this and see if this is what he wanted to do later on, and he’s just done a fantastic job.

We showed that we can play with the big boys. We gave it as good an effort as we possibly could.

You look at that lineup, it’s an all-star lineup at every position.

This was an important game, not in the sense of winning, but it was important to get a game under our belt just to see how we fit. I was very encouraged.

You have to understand that was the first outing he’s had all spring. You’re probably not going to have your best command in your first outing. I thought he kept us in the game and...

We quickly learned each player would have to qualify for an Italian passport, which meant some of them had to go back in their heritage as far as we could go.

They told me … well, I’m not exactly sure how it was chosen.

We proved to the people of Italy and to the Italian federation that we can play at this level. We can play with the big boys.

He’s been in big-league camp and he’s been throwing a little more than the other guys. He can probably give us more innings at this point than most of the guys. I didn’t really pick...