You can’t explain it. That’s why it’s a game.

You get nervous, but you can’t play scared. We’ve got to get better. That’s how you get better. We were awful shaky in the beginning and guys started relaxing a little bit and got better....

How about a little mental intensity? How about substituting some of that if you get tired? Let’s develop it. It’s a habit of giving all that you have three hours a night.

The whole inning was self-inflicted. They don’t stop putting on the pressure, they keep coming, they capitalize on mistakes.

It’s possible Wise or Santana will go out on a rehab assignment to pitch a few innings. We just want to make sure they’re OK before we make a roster move and send somebody out.

He’s going to be a 3, 4, 5 hitter throughout his career. He’s not going to sit in the seventh spot. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately but we haven’t been winning too...

This is exactly why he’s here. He can fill that role. And the reason we don’t use him (more) is we’re just not going to throw him out there. We’re saving him for situations like...

I just remember the first time we went through it in Atlanta with a bunch of young guys, in 1991. John Smoltz would be warming up and it would be like he was going to...

[Hitters] know they’re going to get very little to hit, and they know they’re going to have to stay disciplined in their approach and take what he gives you, … You can’t go up there...

Benny we think has a slight strain of his lat. It’s not the shoulder or elbow. We will evaluate him tomorrow and he will be day-to-day.

It was a good debut all around. He has good stuff. He had a great breaking ball.

The harder you fight, the worse it makes it, and you end up getting pulled out and you drown,

We kept smoking the ball, just right at people.

You really can’t count on scoring five runs off of Roger Clemens, but tonight, luckily, we did. Any time you can beat him, you’ve done something.

It’s a great feeling, … A lot of timely hits. It’s a huge win for us.

I don’t know why people want to think it’s a curse. We’ve been waiting three years for this.

Dave Bush was really, really good. (He) had quick innings, kept his pitch count down, got us through seven. That was big.

He has done a nice job. He’s been impressive.

The hardest thing will be finding the clubhouse, because no one knows where they’re going. But I think we’ll manage that.

He needs an inning badly. It doesn’t help matters for any closer to go that long without pitching.

We have the ability to do special stuff, and we have to continue to be more consistent, and that’s team-wide. It’s not one single person or one single area. We do believe that we’ll get...

He works at it. That’s the key to his growth. His command has been as good as I’ve seen it over an extended period.

It’s not easy; it’s hard. You’ve got to get into good eating habits and good conditioning habits early. If you don’t, it can get away from you. This is real important for his career.

That was a huge sigh of relief,

Ben (Sheets) threw well, Doug Davis, Chris Capuano, I was pleased with all of our starters. It was a good day.

You can’t really hit or miss on one outing.

Knowing he would be a little more geared up, he wanted to back off on his breaking ball. It’s something we all talked about. The second inning he had easy life on his fastball. You...

There really are no set plans. We’re aiming for him to make his next start and see where that goes.

We’re a little more settled this year. We have a better idea of when guys are going to pitch. We have a plan.

We’ve been swinging the bats OK, with the exception of (Wednesday night), … I think every team has those games where it seems like you can’t get anything done.

I look at it as a big-picture scenario,

I don’t think you’d see that in too many other cities.

I don’t think there is a guy I would more want to see up there in that situation than Carlos because he’s been swinging the bat so well.

Looks are deceiving at times. Sometimes, they’re not.

We were getting short out there. You can’t keep pushing it.

If everybody would just relax a little and let him do his thing, he’d be fine.

It nicked off his glove. With two strikes, we play in on Pierre on the opposite way anyway. About the last thing he will do is hit a ball the opposite way over an outfielder’s...

He was dead on. I told him after the game, ‘Let’s put two of these together,’ and he said, ‘2:14.’ I don’t think he quite understood me.

He’s smart. He knows when to pick his spots.

With an off day coming up Thursday, maybe.

When he pitched more aggressively out of the bullpen, something started clicking. Later in the year, he was strong and the more I saw him, the more I liked him. I think he has a...

All that stuff takes care of itself when you win,

(Capuano) just struggled all day. He could never get it going. We had too many walks all day. We ended up with nine. When a team has been struggling to score runs a little bit...

He never got settled in. He never found a groove, never got anything going. He was fighting all night long.

We knew he was going to struggle at the plate. That wasn’t a surprise.

It’s nothing serious but it got him right in the meat part of his hand. It’s just a little sore.

Ben would have made the team if he had been completely healthy. But it was in his best interest not to push it, so he’d be ready opening day.

John Smoltz is pretty good. He’s been pretty good for a long time.

They got a fine performance out of Bronson Arroyo, and that was the difference.

There are things we’re still trying to accomplish. The .500 mark is one of them, and to continue to battle in the wild-card race is one of them. You can’t fall too far behind in...