When you have a layoff and you come back and do something athletic, it's hit or miss for a couple of times, ... There's nothing to do. There's not enough time to go out and make five or six starts. |
When you have to play the games, go through six weeks of Spring Training and six months of baseball just to get to the postseason, it's not as easy as it looks sometimes, |
When you jump out and score five runs in the second and three in the third, that's a big deal. We didn't just say, 'OK, we have five, here we go.' We kept the pressure on, which was good to see. |
When you're pitching on the road and you get to go to the mound for the first time with runs, that's a big deal, ... Especially, when you know they've got a possible Cy Young winner out there and a great bullpen. |
With Jaret back, even though Small deserves to be in the rotation, he gives us a legitimate long guy. He makes our bullpen better, so if there's a situation where the bullpen needs to get four or five innings, we don't have to kill the 'pen. That's something we haven't had. |
You guys like to make a big deal out of one game, don't you? I think we needed to win today for our own peace of mind. |
You guys want me to stand there and tell you I feel great and the ball is going 103 mph [after some less than stellar recent bullpen sessions], |
You have to find ways to prevent the big innings and minimize damage. I didn't do that today. |
You learn from a bad day. If nothing else, I've got to remember what these guys were hitting off me. It was just bad. |
You turn it up to 100 percent and walk in the next day and there's no problem, the anxiety pretty much goes away. |