World Baseball Classic: Pool B - Italy vs Mexico
Wednesday, 11 March, 2026
Houston, Texas, USA
Daikin Park
Team Mexico
Manager Benji Gil
Postgame Press Conference
Q. Just want to ask you, obviously this team is built a year before, maybe it's too soon or maybe you're not the indicator person to be behind the managing position. Also want to ask you about the future of this team. You might have Serna, just like you had Aranda, Mateo and the other youngsters, and Osuna who didn't play much today. I like that example of Duran as stars on the team, what about the future of the team?
BENJI GIL: Well, yeah, I think it's a great future. Many talented players on the squad, in which they're up and coming.
And in regards to their position, and even on the pitch, Marcelo Mayer, Ornelas, also Osuna, (indiscernible), Latino -- there's plenty of very interesting players that are going to keep us dreaming to obtain a world championship.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to do so. We worked hard for it. We prepared for this.
I think Italy -- it was just their night. It's very hard to complain about one or another thing.
Q. After Sunday's game, 16 runs against Brazil, you guys were having 15 players circulating. So what caused this decrease?
BENJI GIL: We had no hits. I can even dare to say that the quality of each turn was not the best. But it's not because of lack of effort or commitment or preparation.
I'm not sure if, honestly, the answer to this will be because we wanted to be more or showcase more than who we really are, or maybe players were looking too passive. When you're done, you go home, you're just done.
For example, if it's a season, you've still got time to reflect on that. But it's not the case for tonight. We had many opportunities. We just didn't have that fortunate hit on our favor. We didn't have that quality tonight.
I would love to have an answer to this because if I did I would have told you before all this because I could have been able to resolve it before it happened. But these things happen.
Trust me, if I were to change my turns from the ones that we had against Brazil to this game, or to these games, would I have done it in a heartbeat. But we had to say it. We have to admit it.
There was a curve on the pitch today. For some reason, there was a curve today. He was not in the game, and so it kept going out of the zone, and so we couldn't make those adjustments.
We practiced. We trained that. But it's just too easy to say, well, don't do the curve, so it won't be in the strike zone. But when you have a batter there and it goes in and out of the zone, you think you should either defend it or hit it. So it's just one of those things.
Q. When we first saw the roster, the Mexican roster, we believed that we were going to advance to the next round. Do you think this is a failure?
BENJI GIL: I'm, like, no, I don't believe it's a failure. I think that Italy deserved to advance. People that don't know baseball might say, oh, well, look it's Italy, right? Because they're known for soccer, Brazil and Italy and what not, are known in soccer.
But Italy in baseball is a really, really good team. Let's say tonight's game wouldn't have happened. After three games of watching them, does someone think they're a bad team after what they displayed against the U.S.?
Whoever thinks they're not a good team -- forget about tonight's game -- let's say we just watched last night's game. And you were to tell me that they're not a good team, you have no clue what you're talking about.
So we did face a really good team. And Nola and Skenes, they're great pitchers, both of them. It's not for nothing that both teams prepared their best pitcher against Mexico. That's not a coincidence. It's not like they just threw the cards in the air and hoped for the best.
No, they're prepared for this, just as Mexico -- we've been growing in our game, and we're very proud of our team, very proud of our players because they kept going to the very end, and they did not give up at all.
I don't know if I'll be here for the next three years or not. I'm not sure, but I did tell them that if you were to give the same effort you did for tonight and last night, there will be a day that Mexico will win this tournament. Mexico will win it in the near future if they stay committed, if they stay fighting.
Today we faced a really, really good team. I guess they're on a streak. They made, how many home runs against the U.S.? Four home runs. Did they have three or four? Three last night, four today. Seven home runs in 18 innings? You know how hard that is. It's difficult to do, seven home runs in 18 innings.
Q. Besides the surprise of tonight's score line, if we checked the calendar and you have many consecutive games, but then you have a break and then you have two games, do you think that could have affected your elimination?
BENJI GIL: No, when I saw our schedule, I thought -- our fixture, I thought it was for our own benefit seeing that we had a day off and then face the U.S. and Italy. I thought that would help us save our pitchers, because I believe that the pitchers will take us to the win.
If we were to play in two more days and they could ask me, would you use all the players that you used today, I would say. And they would tell me, but what if they allow nine more runs? I will say, no, you're crazy. I would never think that they would allow nine runs from the opponent.
But it happened today. Maybe with one exception. Center field, they missed the ball, but besides that play, everyone played good turns on their base and on their bats.
Q. You were mentioning earlier that you don't know if you're still going to be the Mexican manager. But is your idea to continue at the front of this project?
BENJI GIL: Yes, 100 percent. If I get the chance, I will say this is one of the greatest blessings ever to be in charge of this Mexican squad. I'm very grateful to whom gives me this responsibility and to God for putting me in this position.
I'll be delighted if you were to ask me or tell me, you're going to continue. Then tomorrow I will start thinking of what we need to do in order to win the championship, because, okay, tonight happened, already happened.
But now I've got to prepare a strong mind and to figure out how to get Mexico a win, a win in the championship. And I would devote myself even more than before to get that possibility, or make that possibility a reality to the Mexican people.
Q. Considering that 30 percent of the baseball players are Latino, with what you've accomplished in the last two WBCs with Los Charros and with what Francisco Cervelli has done with Italy, what do you think this says about Latino managers and the possibility of one day managing in the Big Leagues with everything you've accomplished?
BENJI GIL: I think there's a bunch of Latin managers that are more than capable to have the responsibilities of being at the head of an organization in Major League Baseball.
I don't know if it's me, but there's a lot. There's a lot of candidates that should be considered. And I'll be honest, it's kind of sad that you don't see a lot of these guys even get interviewed.
It seems like -- I'll just give you my two cents because you brought it up -- there were nine vacancies, and it seems like I'm doing the wrong things to try and get interviews. And I just never would have thought that managing baseball teams successfully doesn't put you in a position to actually become a manager.
You know, it is what it is. I'll just continue trying to do the best job that I can, and if I get considered in the future, great. If I don't get considered, all I can do is continue to try to do the best job that I can for the organization that I manage, for the community that I represent, and try and give whatever I can to baseball and that organization.
Q. What could you tell the Mexican fans that were hoping, right, in this game and Rodrigo López and yourself believe that this is one of the best Mexican squads in history. Everything went too fast last night. We were still in high hopes after the defeat against the U.S. Now knowing that we're eliminated, what would you like to tell your people?
BENJI GIL: Well, before anything, it will be a huge mistake to not say thank you, thank you for your efforts. Thank you for coming to cheer us on.
I want to reflect and say that there's people that are not that optimistic, that might criticize us, and I believe that the majority of those people remain positive and try to cheer us on. Maybe they're in the fourth or fifth inning when the game was only 2-0. And then the same people flipped and on the fifth inning they started to criticize and say or even think negative things.
I think for the most part they're very positive. They're very grateful for what the team does. And it's reciprocal. We are giving it all. Sometimes you just can't and you just can't.
It's not because of lack of effort. It's not because of lack of devotion, but it's more of a -- we just faced a really good pitcher. That was his night.
And I don't know, Vinnie Pasquantino is the first player in this history in this tournament to have three home runs in one game. And he did that against really good pitchers, three Major League pitchers. So what can you do?
And a few had really good nights. Berti had a really good night. They played very clean defense. Even when you thought Joe Stopo (phonetic) was on third base and threw a ground ball, and Pasquantino took it up picked it up from the ground and you're like, okay, what do you do, right? And their players ran and they played hard. We just couldn't. It was their night.
I want to congratulate Francisco Cervelli, their whole staff, Italy, all their players. They played a great game. They have had a great group stage. And wish them nothing but the best.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports164896-1-1045 2026-03-12 03:38:00 GMT
