I think Brady will work out whatever is going on with him. I’m just trying to get some consistency in our offense.

He’s as tough as they come, … and when you fall behind a guy like that it’s tough to come back.

He has made tremendous defensive improvement at every position. He’s good at all of them.

It was good to get some runs early, … It gave Cappy a little room to breathe out there. He pitched another good game.

It totally amazes me how he can go through as many distractions as he’s got. He closes it out of his mind and focuses on what he’s doing.

The only sense of relief is that I don’t have to talk about it. My focus here is totally on winning games and it always has been. I’ve always thought that if you take care...

He threw the ball good. Our plan now is to have him play catch (today) and then see how he feels. If everything is OK, we’ll have him throw another simulated game on Tuesday and...

You get a little nervous. But you can’t play scared, and we have to get better. We were awful shaky in the beginning, but guys relaxed and started getting better. I was pleased with the...

When they got the big inning in the third, it ended up costing us the game. That’s something we’ll work on all year.

We’ve got a bunch of young kids that have a lot of heart. Anytime you’re down four runs and get the winning run to the plate in the ninth you’ve done something.

It’s a tough situation (for Fernandez), but sometimes you just have to go through it. It was a tough situation for Mike, too, because he pitched well enough to make our team. Either one of...

You can run into trouble in July and August if you’re not careful (with the bullpen) now. We have to take some pressure off those guys.

To beat a pitcher the caliber of Tim Hudson is a big boost for us. This is what good teams do.

I feel bad about that. We’ve really raided them. But we didn’t have any choice. We had to do it.

(Davis) tried to overthrow a breaking ball (to Burke) and he hung it.

Guys that get accelerated are the guys that go through that.

You’re behind, you get on the attack, and the guy hit it out of the park. I’ve got no problem with that.

It’s not going to be easy. And nothing worthwhile is easy.

I looked up and we had a run in every inning for awhile,

You can blame our hitters all you want,

We had battled back for him and got him in a situation where the score was tied,

He’s been steady ever since we started. He was good the first day we went out, and he’s been good ever since. Great addition.

There were times last year where he would give us an opportunity in the first couple of innings and we wouldn’t capitalize and then he would just nail down. We finally broke through.

Before he came to Spring Training, he strained it a little bit. He slightly re-injured it in the World Baseball Classic. He came back and was feeling all right, but he slid into first the...

We’re not going to pack up and die. Key injuries happen to every team. I hate it for Benny and the team, but you have to pick up the slack and go.

He’s really struggling to command the baseball right now. He’s struggling to command his fastball and his breaking ball. It’s just a little mechanical issue that we’ll continue to work on. But he got a...

He didn’t have any trouble getting the first two hitters out. We’re talking about a third of an inning that killed us.

We want to let Rickie get settled in,

There’s no confidence loss going on anywhere, me or them.

If you give up just one run, the game’s over if you don’t score. When it’s 11-0, it’s everything, pitching, defense and hitting.

Rickie got a curveball up a little bit and he hammered it. It was a big part of the game.

We wanted him to try to go out and pitch five innings and 80 pitches, and he ended up (going) six innings and 70 pitches.

He just struggled. They didn’t hit the ball hard, but they found holes. They put five runs on the board on him quick.

When things are going good, they’re going good.

The difference between us last year and us this year was those young players being here getting us over the hump.

I’ve been real pleased with our catching this season. Damian has given us a little more pop, and Chad hit better after a bad start. Both do great jobs behind the plate.

Again, we’re just experimenting with stuff.

We’ve never played as well as we’re playing right now, since I’ve been here. We’re playing the game so mistake-free.

It’s just down to basically the bullpen. There are still some spots open. We’ve got some things to decide.

He’s trying to get comfortable. He will.

We’re looking for a little more offense at the top of the lineup now. We’re trying to find a way to score some runs on a consistent basis.

The first time we saw Howard this year, it looked like he didn’t belong in the big leagues. It looks like he’s pretty much got things figured out now.

In terms of experience and guys getting better, we’ve taken that step. We’ve made the strides that we set out to make this year as far as big-picture stuff.

I’m not going to concede too many runs in this series, … It depends on who the hitter is, what stage of the game we’re at. I’ve seen a lot of games lost where you’re...

I know these guys will play with a lot of heart and a lot of pride. I knew it was matter of time before we got it going again.

Playing .500 is the first step. Eventually, we’re trying to get to where we can contend with St. Louis for the division. I’d rather have a winning record. We’re tired of being labeled a loser...

When you ‘ ve got a guy who ‘ s supportive and is loyal to his team as much as he is, as opposed to somebody who doesn ‘ t take that interest in the...

That was big for him, to go out in more of a formal situation, facing another Major League team. The second inning he came out with easy life on his fastball. You could see he...

For the first time in a couple of years we’re not going to have to turn the roster over to get better, … We’re going to have to increase our depth on the bench, the...

Tomo was very crisp today. He was sharp, he was throwing his fastball as hard as he has all year.