It was nasty. The nastiest one, though, was when he struck out Lane on a fastball down. That's where he's got to learn to pitch. |
It's a little tough to focus on the job. We're playing with a heavy heart. It's really tough. It makes it emotional. |
It's incredible. If they can keep their heads on straight, they'll be great. |
It's not like he has to earn our respect. He walked in here with it. |
It's not like we're just launching pop-ups out of the park. We're doing the little things, we're running the bases, getting guys over when we need it and we're getting great pitching, and that's the key. |
One thing we won't have a problem with, though, is guys playing hard. Tram will make sure that happens. |
That's below the knees, high 90s, and guys are trying to touch it. |
The thing that makes it so good is he throws it so hard. |
They feed off their crowd. They're an emotional team. They get one guy on, and it's like a huge rally. The crowd goes crazy ... truly the extra-man effect. |
Ultimately, he's got to pitch at the knees and then go up in the strike zone. His motor runs pretty high, and he wants to pitch up early. |
We wanted to keep him off balance, try to establish [inside]. When we went in, we were on the plate. That's his strength. |
We're not prepared. That's what it boils down to. There's all kinds of things that are making us look bad now, unfortunately. |
You still have to go out and compete. We signed on to play 162 games, not 140 games and shut it down. If you're any kind of professional, it's important to show what kind of pride you have. |