We took great at-bats tonight. We hit four home runs. And the beautiful part of it was the run that we scored to go ahead was something that we worked at very hard in Spring...

He pitched like an ace today — and he had the demeanor of one. I saw a guy who was extremely interested in wanting to be the ace of the staff.

He has to be, and should be, proud of the spring training he’s had.

I am a big believer in the fact that stuff gets people out, not what looks cosmetically correct. Stuff is what gets major league hitters out.

To expect to be able to score seven or eight [runs] is ridiculous. It hasn’t happened in the history of the game.

We know he’s very capable. He has the pitches to get major-league hitters out.

Derek Lowe, for the fourth time in a row, was just phenomenal. Not good, not great, phenomenal.

He gave us more than you would expect from a young kid, offensively, … and defensively, he made many nice plays at third.

You can’t have a better at-bat. He hit the [heck] out of the ball down the first-base line and Niekro was in the spot where he needed to be or that would have been a...

We’re going to have to get moving as far as trimming the roster some. Over the next few days, there is a strong chance we’re going to have to do some things.

That guy’s really something. Can you imagine a 95-mph fastball, and he goes up and gets it like that?

The wise thing to do would be to have him available [to pinch hit on Friday] and give it one more day.

We had our chances to win that game. We had the stage set. A two-out base hit would have put us ahead, and we weren’t able to get it. The consistency of that just hasn’t...

He had 13 ground-ball outs. That’s a lot of ground-ball outs for a nine-inning game, [let alone] a five-inning stint in spring training. That gives you a pretty good idea of how well he pitched.

I’m not going to sit there and second-guess my players. It’s a youthful player. Let’s be honest.

From my end, the biggest thing was the personnel factor and the evaluation of those players, … I just felt very strongly that the right thing to do would be to move on.

He gets it. He gets situations. He gets who’s batting ahead of him in the lineup and he gets who’s batting behind him. To have a winning-caliber team, you need players like that.

I think a group of players has to understand the type of baseball you have to play to play winning baseball. You have to realize the importance of the intangibles, the little things.

It’s the intangibles they have,

It has a chance to look like that.

The straightforwardness is something they really appreciate.

It was wonderful to see them. They represented themselves extremely well. Timmy Hill should be very proud about the way his kids competed.

It didn’t make any sense to push it. A catcher goes through a lot of wear and tear. He needs to be 100 percent.

We have two kids there. Both are very competent kids — smart enough to understand what we’re talking about — and they will figure it out. We’ve got to find opportunities for both of them....

Most of us still obviously know tendencies of their guys.

No question, he’s making a strong case for himself and everybody is paying very close attention to it. We see what’s going on.

Duke did a fine job. It was a quality start and he gave an opportunity for the club to win. I don’t know how much more you can ask.

I know for a fact that if [Torres] fields it cleanly, we have a force out at third base. There’s no doubt in my mind he was going to get the guy at third base.

The biggest thing is to get him back completely functional versus seeing parts of him, parts of him there. With what I was hearing medically Friday and Saturday, it didn’t make any sense to try...

It’s a two-way street when you give somebody information. We don’t take information to the players unless we think it will be very useful to them. As a player, you have to do something about...

He’s probably looking at a three-week time frame.

I’d be very surprised if he participates between now and the season’s end. First, there’s the health, and second, with 20 games left, there’s no place to rehab with live pitching. It would be unfair...

He’s a work in progress, but he has a chance to be a special pitcher.

The third-base coach is well down the line with his hands up stopping the runner. [Sanchez] didn’t see him.

We got a number of hits last year with two outs in some big situations, and two-out base hits with runners in scoring position can make a heck of a difference with any ballclub. We...

We have to get ebb and flow. We are getting some good pitching here as of late, but now offensively we haven’t done much.

That group of guys showed themselves really well today. They showed the potential of what they have a chance to be all about.

Those are young pitchers who made the adjustments, learned how important it is to get ahead in the count. There isn’t much I can say positive about the first 3 2/3 innings of this game....

He was terrific. He looked like it was his third or fourth game of the spring, not his first. And I liked his approach at the plate, too.

We can’t just have specialty guys with 12 pitchers. We’re going to need some length in our bullpen.

Our approach in any situation like that this early in the spring is to err on the side of caution.

The thing I stress the most is that you only get 27 outs in a game,

We’d like to get together at some point.

And then we’ll go from there and start stretching him out.

There does come a point in time where reality sets in.

I thought he did well. I particularly liked how he gave up a run in the first inning but made an adjustment and pitched really well in the next inning.

We were pitched to death. It’s the best game that’s been pitched against us all year.

There’s a lot of irony in that, isn’t there?

It’s [only] a matter of time before we’re talking strongly about him coming [to the Pirates] to start.

To summarize for you, both guys passed (Saturday). It doesn’t make any decision over the next few days any easier. But that’s what you hope for. When you’re in a position where you have to...