It was a … bullet, and at times the ball skips in this outfield. To Conine’s credit, he’s charging that ball to make a play at the plate.

Those guys should be proud, for what they had to do to accomplish that. They started out with a great team, a very talented group of kids. By the end, we had taken all their...

[Grieve will begin the season as the starter in right, and manager Ned Yost believes Grieve can reach his former home run totals playing at Miller Park.] This ballpark is tailor-made for Ben, … It’s...

His workload has been real heavy. To be thrown into that, even though you’re big and strong, it’s still a little early to have that type of pressure put on you.

Rick did a good job in Triple-A, and he came up here and has done everything we’ve asked him to do. We’ll give him a shot at it.

They make a living throwing the ball. It’s a mental thing, it’s in their heads, and don’t ask me why.

In true Bobby fashion, all he wanted to talk about was how good we were doing, … Finally, I said, ‘Bobby, look, I called you to talk about you, OK? I want to congratulate you...

He came into camp in great shape. He really looks good.

It’s better. It kind of fits more into the wall outline. The green was just a little bit too bright. This is more soothing to the eye. They’re not really adjusting; they’re fine tuning.

Dana had much more control of his faculties. He stayed within himself and pitched very well.

We were waiting for Vic to turn it around. We wanted to give him every opportunity. … He had a great start at Colorado, and then went right back to making mistakes with his fastball...

Dave Bush really shut down a real talented offensive team. He did a great job, really picked us up. That’s two consecutive good starts, so it rested our bullpen and gave us a break that...

He wanted to go back out. We didn’t want to take any chances with him.

It was a win for Davis. We were hoping it’d be for Doug Davis, as well as Doug’s pitched. Doug’s been sitting on nine wins for a long time.

To win 14 consecutive years is like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting [streak], … It’s a record that’s never going to be broken.

He was moving his pitches in and out. He had a good split.

He seems like a very quiet, confident veteran. It’s hard coming to a new clubhouse. He knows exactly what he’s trying to do and is setting out to do it.

Jeff Cirillo is a solid player. He’s been a great addition to the team. He does everything well. I’m not afraid to put him at second base.

He didn’t pull anything. It just felt strange to him. It was not a knifelike pain, just a dull ache. He has some scar tissue back there, and it could be he popped some of...

We did that in Atlanta,

We’re a player short for a day or two because of Branyan. We thought it was more important to have an extra player on the bench. It’s only for, what, five games because we’re off...

We’re doing a lot of little things right. We’re getting some breaks, too.

You can always tell how Ben is feeling by his personality.

He’s just come in and earned it.

We just let too many opportunities get early. We got his pitch count way up and had opportunities to score and couldn’t put the ball in play. That always finds a way to come back...

If we put a lot of stress and emphasis on it, then, at times, it gets into your head a little bit.

He can’t hurt it anymore than it already is. When it does hurt, it hurts for about 5 seconds and goes away.

Look who did the damage. That’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got those kids and they’re producing.

I may move him up or down, but I’m not taking him out of the lineup no matter what happens. He’ll get his occasional day off just like everybody will get, but he doesn’t have...

We feel good about sending Doug out. Doug has always pitched very well against Pittsburgh. He’s a guy that you like to have on the mound.

He pitched very, very well. He was very determined, had good stuff and was on the attack and pitched a great game.

He had very good stuff. He had an outstanding (split-finger fastball). He’s working one expanding (his strike zone) a little bit.

He`s not throwing strikes, … He`s throwing from behind. With his stuff, pitching ahead is the key.

They opened my eyes, offensively, to the fact that they were capable of being big league players, and they opened eyes, defensively, and showed us that they weren’t ready to be big league players.

Pitch counts have gotten into everybody’s brain. Guys make so much money now. You want to protect your investment. You don’t want to abuse your pitchers.

We’re going for the win, and Prince has a better chance of hitting a home run. That’s the hardest thing to do in baseball. You have to have a special frame of mind going up...

The main thing we’ve been focusing on is our team defense and I thought our team defense was very, very good today on a very hard and fast infield. So I was pleased with that.

We were happy with the home stand, but when you win the first five you surely want to win the last game.

Danny has had good downhill action. His ball is sinking good. He’s going to be fine.

They got a great performance out of Arroyo. He was very sharp and stayed on the attack. Ben was good tonight but Arroyo matched him pitch for pitch.

That’s the class of the league over there. It’s been the class of the league or in the top class of the league the last 14 years. We’ve never even won a series at home...

He’s doing much better today than yesterday. We were going to be nervous if he wasn’t. (Friday), every time he moved, it would spasm up. It’s not doing that. That’s a good sign.

He’s a good pitcher having a bad year. And the good pitcher in him came out tonight.

That was the plan all along. We were going to get him out of it, get him comfortable and put him back in the five.

I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to fight for the wild-card next year. As good as St. Louis is, that’s something we want. We want to fight for the division championship.

It’s tough when you start the season with the workload that he had.

I think he feels like he’s got a better supporting cast around him this year, and he doesn’t have to carry the team on his back.

We said all along that he would probably struggle in the first half and take off in the second half. That’s what’s happened.

His ability to handle people,

I think we all were (impressed). There’s some reason why he has jumped three levels in a year and a half. You could see why today.