He’s going to do a couple of things here today, move around a bit, but it won’t be until later next week that he’ll be taking ground balls. He’s still a few days away from...

It says something about the guy, how strong he is. Strong character guys and quality guys, the sun has the tendency to shine on guys like that in the long run.

You look at any good staff and you’ll find that. It can only help us.

His presence, that’s a big boy. He commands respect that way.

It will be good to get home. I think any team would’ve had problems with this trip. It’s tough to win on the road in any sport. You just get more opportunities in baseball.

That was a character builder. We’ve got winners on this team. That wasn’t easy. Beckett was rolling. We got some big clutch home runs. That was outstanding. That’s one where you come all the way...

That’s what we’re shooting for. He threw a side [session Sunday] and played some catch today. I think Wednesday, they want a simulated game.

What we want him to do is get up there and turn it lose, … He has a track record to prove he’s a productive big league hitter. It’s been a tough year for him....

I tell you, he is a heck of a player. We were hoping he was going to fling that ball into the stands in the ninth.

They were raving about him two months ago. I think he’s done a nice job for us. It’s magnified at the end because he’s struggled a little bit of late.

We’ll be ready to play. We’ve got a chance to influence the outcome of this thing. That’s enough incentive right there.

He’s getting there. He’s not full-speed. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe this weekend. We’ll see if he’s ready.

It was good to see him out there. He was erratic in his command. But he’s got such a good arm that he can pitch from behind in the count at times. It will be...

He settled in with that breaking ball (after the first inning) and we couldn’t do much with it.

I saw the replays and it looked like he got lucky.

We just want to break it up for them a little bit. Get them out there facing some competition. It revs things up a little bit.

What are you going to do? The strong survive.

I think Cat has found his place out there in left.

He belongs here. He’s paid his dues. He deserves it.

I’ll give him a few games at third base, but Troy plays a lot. I think there’s a point just to keep him sharp out there because you never know what happens, somebody could go...

Baseball’s a gamble. We went for the top two guys out there. We’re banking on them. And they’re banking on us.

Everything looks like it’s going to be all right. Everyone is feeling good about things again.

He’s really stepped in and done a nice job for us. The guy can pitch and we knew that. Our pitching the entire game was outstanding.

He’s confident. He’s got as much confidence as anyone out there. He knows how to win. It comes down to that. He knows how to win, and we win when he’s pitching.

He’s one of those guys that, when he’s on, he can shut you down. And the good ones, when they get in jams, they get out of them. A lot of times, that’s where games...

You watch Ortiz over the past few years and there is not a more clutch guy in the game.

We survived it, we move on. There’s more tough ones ahead of us.

But the top teams, in whatever sport, always bring out the best in you. That means you’re usually ready to play, not that you’ll win them all.

It was good to have him back out there. He wasn’t as sharp, but it’s been two weeks. He’s fine. He’s healthy. He feels good. Any time you pitch against this team, I don’t care...

The platoon is still on, he just hits Vazquez good.

It was working to our advantage. He couldn’t throw strikes. It’s a big lead to overcome, though. Brutal conditions, but it was working in our favor at the moment.

His instincts told him he had a shot at him. It’s a tough play when the third baseman is on the move.

We’ve been swinging. We like the way our offence is built.

I talked to him today about a few things and I hope he got the message. You see guys on the other side like (Derek) Jeter and (Gary) Sheffield get down the line.

I don’t see him playing the rest of the year. It doesn’t make any sense. Of course he’s disappointed. But he understands that it’s late.

A homer a day keeps the bench away.

The more we saw him out there, we figured, ‘It’s time to put him in there.’ And we may have held on to him a little bit long, not playing against lefties early. … Russ?...

He was in trouble but he hung in there.

We could probably use some of those later in the year.

I just told him that it’s still the same game. You make your pitches you get guys out. You don’t and they get you. It’s still the same game of baseball. Sometimes it takes a...

It was a bad read. You don’t know how things are going to play out after that but he was a little too aggressive.

If somebody takes the bull by the horns, it makes sense to keep the hot hand out there. We’ll see. It won’t be easy because guys all want a lot of playing time, but we...

We battled, we hung in there and gave ourselves some chances. They came through.

He starts moving and then bam, it’s on you. He can give you fits. You don’t feel comfortable and when he’s throwing that hard and he’s that big on the mound, he can intimidate you...

At this stage of the game we’ve got come out of it over .500, no question, … Boston’s rolling, the Yanks aren’t going to fold and the wild card’s all bunched up. We definitely need...

They hung tough, they swung it, they make you pay.

We scored some runs to give him a little breathing room. He pitched good. He got out of some big jams.

As good as the team has played he feels if he’s around we’re that much better. That frustrates him, he’s the leader of the pitching staff.

We’re going to need them. There are going to be days in the year we are going to have to call on them to do the job and hold the fort so we can try...

He’s a big, tall right-hander. He’ll be closing out games one day.