I'm just trying not to throw a lot of pitches and keep my team in the game as long as possible. I've just been trying to get out of my starts with minimum damage. Even when you don't have your best stuff, pitching is about getting out of tough situations without your best stuff. |
It would be an honor. This is the oldest franchise. |
It?s an honor for anybody to get the ball for the first game of the season. I know the adrenaline is going to be going. The fans are so intense, especially on opening day, it?s a whole different atmosphere. The whole city takes it very personal. |
It's already feeling better than it did a couple of days ago. That's a positive. |
It's an honor for anybody to get the ball the first game of the season. I'm excited about it. I'm going to go out there and try to keep my composure. I know the adrenaline is going to be going. |
It's an honor for anybody, especially here, the oldest franchise in major league baseball. |
It's something we're going to try, because you never know. I mean, during the season, it could come up where you've got a runner on second and third or first and second, with two outs, and you've been struggling to get out of the inning, and a guy kind of gets lazy off second base - boom, pick him off, inning over. |
It's the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. For anybody to get that Opening Day start, it's an honor. But I'm going to go out and get ready for the season, build up some innings and get my arm in shape this spring. |
Jerry seems like an old-school baseball guy. He likes the hard-nosed, go get 'em attitude. |
No. That's just one of those things about the game that's weird. One week you can not have it and the next week you come out and throw well. |
That's a very tough lineup, and anybody in it can hurt you. I executed my pitches and had good defense behind me. You can never tell warming up whether you're going to have a good game like that. |
That's going to be really neat to see. |
The best place to work on it is down here. What it does is, it gets you in a habit and gets your comfort level with doing something new. |
The biggest thing is everybody has to be consistent. We had some ups and downs last year. Guys are coming in early, getting ready for the season. We've got some veteran guys to fill in the bullpen. Starters have to step up and get us through six or seven innings and give our bullpen a chance to finish it. |
The fans are enthusiastic, so it's fun to come here and play well. The Cubs have hit me before, but tonight I threw strikes and the guys played defense behind me. And he (Pena) has hit the ball hard all year. I was grateful he did it again. |