After I sat down and thought about it, I learned a lot about the game, about myself. |
After I threw my bullpen two days after that start, my leg was great. So there were no worries about that. My location just wasn't there at all today, for whatever reason. I'm doing the best I can to see if I can fight through it. After the first inning, I was hoping to just battle and give us five or six innings. |
After the first three starts, I'm like, OK, now I have a feel for all my pitches so I was telling (catcher) Johnny (Estrada), let's use all three. I just want to build off this and try to get better as we go along. |
Everything went well. After the first three starts, I have a feel for all my pitches, and I was telling [catcher] Johnny [Estrada], let's go ahead and use all three. Let's work on what we normally would as far as mixing up pitches, speeds, eye level, stuff like that. |
I am here to get ready for the season. My main objective is to throw good pitches. I want the guys to swing the bats and hit the ball. I was really happy for a while there, the fact I was getting ahead. |
I can almost guarantee you, ... I won't win it. I've talked to a ton of people who tell me, around the league, my name is never mentioned. |
I can't. I wish I could. Nothing seemed to be where I wanted it. |
I could see that they were serious, ... Winning's important. I wanted to be a part of what they're trying to accomplish. |
I felt like I could throw every pitch with conviction and not worry about my mechanics. The walks today came up and bit me. ... I just couldn't execute my pitches. |
I felt like I was right around the zone the whole night. |
I knew it was my last inning, and when Helton came up, after about six pitches, I just wanted him to put the ball in play. I started trying to be too fine with pitches, and trying to throw the ball in a good spot over the plate that maybe he'd put in play. But it was good to be able to be stretched out like that. It was nice to get up and down five times. |
I made seven mistakes today. I got hit hard. What are you going to do? I wasn't very happy, obviously, to put us in that situation, but at the same time I guess it could have been a lot worse. |
I never claimed to be anything other than the type of pitcher that I am, which is to go out and battle as hard as I can to get a win. And it worked. Everybody wants to harp on last year, but I was gone for the heart of the year, hurt. |
I think we felt pretty good about our bullpen, ... but, definitely, getting John back adds a lot. |
I thought all along I'd feel more confident up here than down there. |