Eventually, I hope they find a spot for both of us. |
He is one of my inspirations to keep working hard. He is extremely talented, but he has fallen on some tough times. I think about him a lot when I play. |
I didn't really settle down until the fourth inning. It was almost a blessing that it was cold. It made me concentrate on my pitches. I made pitches when I had to. But I wasn't right early in the count. |
I didn't want to stir anything up. When we went in, we went in. I was just more aware what we were doing. Once I went through the lineup, hopefully they knew I wasn't going inside and trying to hit anybody. Hopefully it would cool off. |
I feel like I'm ready to go out there and pitch. |
I felt it going to second and I slowed down. I didn't think it was anything but when I got to third and planted, it grabbed. It felt like I was dragging a big weight behind me. |
I felt like I was dragging a big weight behind me because I was dragging that leg along. I knew it wasn't bad because I was still walking and running on it. If it was torn, you're going down, so I knew it wasn't bad. It was very painful and I'm just glad I made it home. |
I felt right there with him. I threw the same pitch to Nick Johnson - fastball up. |
I gave him a pat because I felt right there with him. It's tough watching those guys run around the bases and you can't do anything about it, especially after you pitch well. It's just sometimes the game comes down to one pitch. It's frustrating. We didn't have to say anything. We felt each other's pain. |
I have to get over my own fears of being out there. Do I belong here? Once that happens, I feel like I can be part of this team and rely on these guys to win games. I think a new guy always has an advantage. Once they adjust to me, it will be my adjustment back to this league that will determine my future success. |
I knew my role was to come in here and to lay low, to just eat up innings, to pitch any game they needed me to pitch and to just give this team a chance to win every time. It wasn't to come in here and take over the show. |
I like the underdog. Look at me. If everybody played the way they were supposed to, I wouldn't be here. |
I think I've been giving these guys too much credit for being good hitters. I know they are good hitters up here, but I can't be afraid to pitch to them. When I get in trouble I am able to go after them. |
I think you add 40,000 fans and it changes things a little bit. All of a sudden, you're in a situation where there are tons of people, it's on TV, and people are analyzing everything you're doing. Now it's for real. Everything counts. For any young guy, it's something you have to adapt to. |
I think you can tell [the jitters] by hitting [Alfonso] Soriano in the head. I didn't feel comfortable until about the fourth inning. Then I settled in, my adrenaline started cooling off. Those first three innings were almost surreal. It was almost a blessing that it was cold because there weren't as many people out there. |