[NOTEBOOK: Twins left-hander Johan Santana will miss Wednesday’s start against the Tigers with a blister on the middle finger of his left hand. Left-hander Francisco Liriano (0-0. 4.50 ERA) will start in his place. …...

We broke out today, it’s been awhile.

[The first returns on Carlos Guillen ‘s progress, now that he has resumed baseball activities, is] nothing out of the ordinary, … It was slow. He won’t be ready in a day or two, I...

Jason did an outstanding job for us. I’m sure he’s happy, and I couldn’t be happier for him.

(Graffanino’s) hit us whether he’s been with the Royals, White Sox, Boston. He seems to always get on base, some how, some way. He’s been a thorn in our side.

I’ve done it a little bit, … but I still look at Shelton being the first baseman. … I’m not going to pinch-hit for Shelton, and I would pinch-hit for Pena. Today I’m probably not...

We’re trying to do some of the things they’re doing. We’re a little behind them — but we started behind them.

does he fit in next year?

I’m going to look at some things.

In 2003, (Bonderman) was the best guy for the job, to be honest with you. We didn’t have guys in the organization at that time that were better.

Whether I’m there or not, I’ll always be a Tiger, and I’ll always root for the Tigers.

I thought we responded to everything well except for this last month. I think, looking back, it is fair to say that we hit a wall.

Thank God you didn’t do that to him, … Your dog, maybe, but not your son. They would have picked on the poor kid.

They’re not the hottest team in baseball right now, like they were.

It toughens you up. Sometimes you go into little streaks of, why is this and this happening? I’m past that. If I’m going to be a manager and do this for a long period, these...

I’d have to say he’d be the odds-on favorite right now to be our starting center fielder for next year.

I think Joe will develop into a little more power [than he has now]. He’s got that opposite field stroke, which is nice to have to start with. He’s just too big not to hit...

That’s where pride comes in. Regardless of what happens, people are watching you. You’re a professional — that’s the approach you have to take.

I just wish that he would have went home. Didn’t want to give up a run that way.

There’s been no setbacks, … What we wanted to do is take it slow.

Monday will be a big day. But I’m fine. I’m not worried about it. I’ll deal with it.

We got a few runs off Colon and that was very pleasing. It feels great to win here.

In his short career, he’s pitched well against us, … I know he’s 5-16. I know he’s had some tough luck and all, but I think he’s going to be a good one. This year’s...

A lot of things aren’t going our way. You score that many runs in the first inning and then give up six, it’s depleting and it takes its toll on you.

It was the Robertson-Pena show tonight.

Hopefully we can get his pitch count up so he can go deeper into the game the next time out. He’ll be limited the first time out, though. We can’t let him go 100 pitches.

He’s too valuable to take any chances with.

I’m going to be flat-out: When we started the season, we thought we had a group that we were going to be able to grow and work with and try to get better,

He’s pitched some very nice ballgames. For him to be rewarded with a W, that’s nice.

I think he’s the brightest thing to happen to us this season. He’s a big piece of the puzzle.

If we’d have swept them, I don’t think we’d be going into Boston, or Chicago, or Cleveland any different.

We don’t have the finished product yet, we have a learning 21-year-old. But we like what we have. I give him credit, going through what he went through last season, getting on-the-job training. He handled...

(Oakland) got back on track and we just couldn’t stop them. It was just a night the Tigers got pounded.

This is six games in a row that we’ve been pounded. That doesn’t sit well with anybody. We need to stop this.

I thought we could chip away (at 4-0) and I thought it was the best chance of staying in the game. It didn’t work out.

We’re going to have to make a decision on Carlos,

I like what I see of him, but there’s room for improvement.

I don’t think Jeremy was sharp. Velocity-wise he was fine, but location he was not. He didn’t have it. We got pounded. Honestly, it could have been worse. We scored in three innings and all...

Down the stretch, we’ve been struggling with our pitching staff, but he’s taken the ball. He’s been our best pitcher down the stretch when things have been tough. It means a lot, it really does....

Really, I’m OK. I’m a big boy. I’ve been through enough that I understand how things are.

Matt and Andrew handled themselves very well. I was very comfortable. They were very comfortable talking baseball.

They’ve done everything in their power to get that field ready. It can’t be perfect. It’s a groundskeeper’s worst nightmare.

Comerica Park a bandbox. Who would have thought?

It was a big play. Who knows what might have happened after that? If he doesn’t make that play, we could have arguably scored two runs.

He only had 95 going into the inning, and we were hoping he would go seven. It didn’t happen, but he still was great for us.

It’s just kind of the way things have been going for us. We’re not catching any breaks.

We didn’t score any runs. We had opportunities to score runs and we didn’t do it. That was it.

He doesn’t appear to let things bother him. That was a tough situation.

He’s saying that he’s not feeling as well as would like to. He says he can pitch, but why. We’re hoping it would be better and it is not.

I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, … but if he continues like this, we’d have to rethink some things.