Israel<\/a> opens Pool D play in Miami.<\/p>\n\u201cRobert Stock was great today, throwing that hard this early in the season,\u201d Ausmus said. \u201cWe can use him as a starter or out of the bullpen if we need him in a close game. It was also great to see Alintoff\u2019s energy. He was fired up, changed the game\u2019s momentum, and finished his outing by pumping his fist in front of his hometown fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The following day, the blue-and-white proved they could compete with another MLB club, taking a 2\u20131 lead into the eighth inning against the New York Mets before ultimately falling 5\u20132. Despite the loss, Team Israel showed grit, clawing back from an early deficit. Cardinals minor leaguer Zach Levenson went deep, while Carrigg continued to showcase his speed, swiping another base and legging out a triple.<\/p>\n
Both games provided Ausmus valuable opportunities to evaluate his roster and shape his lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited to return to Team Israel,\u201d said Ausmus, who first joined the program in 2012 and famously autographed a baseball for President Shimon Peres during his visit to Israel. \u201cIn my first experience, we had only minor league players. But we felt a special spirit of camaraderie, which has characterized Israeli teams over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ausmus, a Gold Glove and All-Star catcher during his 18-year MLB career, is widely respected for his baseball IQ and leadership skills, which later guided him as manager of the Detroit Tigers and now as bench coach of the New York Yankees. He is enthusiastic about the talent assembled for this year\u2019s squad, though he acknowledges Israel will enter as an underdog in a formidable bracket.<\/p>\n
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COLE CARRIGG and manager Brad Ausmus lead Israel this weekend in the World Baseball Classic group play. (credit: Jared Polin\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to having players like Dean Kremer, Harrison Bader, and Spencer Horwitz on the squad,\u201d Ausmus said. \u201cBut we\u2019re not going to sit back and wait for three-run homers. We\u2019re going to be aggressive, go after wins, and push the envelope. We\u2019re going to take it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Symbolically, a Zoom interview conducted from Israel to Ausmus in Florida was briefly interrupted by Iranian missile attacks, underscoring the gravity of the moment. The interruptions provided Israel\u2019s manager an opportunity to express his hope that he and his players can represent the country with pride during these difficult times and offer Israelis and Jews around the world a welcome respite \u2013 and a reason to stand tall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Symbolically, a Zoom interview conducted from Israel to Ausmus in Florida was briefly interrupted by Iranian missile attacks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,26033,160,52,913,53,6623,365,13565,1816,778,58,4171,4,61,62,10916,950,49492,4820],"class_list":{"0":"post-609141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brad-ausmus","10":"tag-cardinals","11":"tag-colorado-rockies","12":"tag-dean-kremer","13":"tag-detroit-tigers","14":"tag-garrett-stubbs","15":"tag-harrison-bader","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-marlins","18":"tag-miami","19":"tag-miami-marlins","20":"tag-miamimarlins","21":"tag-mlb","22":"tag-new-york-mets","23":"tag-new-york-yankees","24":"tag-robert-stock","25":"tag-spencer-horwitz","26":"tag-team-israel","27":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116180523819717131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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