It's a comfort factor for me and my family. I felt this was the better fit. |
Look, it was awesome, ... Winning a championship in Boston was awesome, but I needed to turn the page. I'm here now. I don't want to rewrite that chapter, I want to write a new chapter, winning a championship on this side. |
My job is to help this team get to the postseason; I'm trying to show my manager that I can handle whatever he puts in front of me right now, ... This is the time of year when it's good to have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder, so maybe this is something I can feed off of. |
My leg-kick was always slow and deliberate, ... Earlier this year I started speeding up. They kept saying my velocity was down and I was trying to do something to generate it. I'm going back to the basics. If you're going to throw hard, you've got to let it happen. When you try to add on, you end up taking off. |
That's not an issue. If I pitch the way I did last night, boo me. If I pitch well, let me know that, too. I deserved it last night. I've been booed and cheered for, so it's not going to hurt my feelings. |
The confidence to beat the Yankees developed over a few years, ... Finally, we got to where we knew we could play with these guys, but at the same time, we knew that if we were going to play with the Yankees, we were going to have to play our best game, because they weren't going to give any slack. Now it's the same way here. These are two good teams who are going to go at it hard, and it's going to be entertaining, no matter which side you're on. |
There's not a lot to do here other than get ready for the game, |
They called me into their office, they said their piece, I said my piece -- it was very professional, just tough to take. They were respectful to me. Did I agree with their decision? No. I would have liked to stick around. I told them that over the past 10 days I had made big strides, was close to busting out and that they were making a wrong decision. |
They have to do what's best for them, first and foremost. And if that means resting guys, then I can understand that. Does that put more pressure on either team? Of course it does. |
This is the offense we saw all year. We got spoiled with this group. We knew they'd come around, and they did. When you look at our whole lineup ... they're going to come through. |
Tough, ... My daughter liked it, my wife hated it. |
When I am right, bet on me, |
When you're in a position to put somebody away, you have to just do it. It's not mechanical. |
Yankee fans will now hold their breath as Alan Embree comes in to pitch |