That?s the safest way to go. We don?t want to lose him. He?s too important.

He hasn’t felt good since then. His average has taken a dip recently. I think we all know why. He hit that nail or bolt or whatever the hell [in Toronto]. Then he started throwing...

Anytime you give extra outs, extra opportunities, it is not good. When things don’t happen always perfect, we come back and don’t let it throw us for a loop.

He was already at the point of the game where we’re going to go to the bullpen if anything happens. When we got out there he said his knee was burning. I don’t think he...

From what I understand, he’s doing terrific.

This was one of those things where Theo thought to himself that if we found ourselves in a 12-inning game at some point this weekend and a situation arises where we could use him and...

I think everything’s fine (with Ramirez), but we’ll need to check on him in the morning.

I never saw him show up, so he’s probably gone. From his point of view, I’m sure once we got Wily Mo [Pena], he probably thought this was not the place to be.

No, he got himself in a predicament where he felt threatened so he kind of took the offensive. He paid his price. Now it’s over and it wasn’t anything that was (premeditated). He just got...

Obviously, early in April we didn ‘ t … We don ‘ t want them to get into the dog days of September and have them dragging. So we really try to monitor them closely.

I saw the same Pap that we’ve always seen. He competes, he makes pitches [and] he pounds the strike zone. He gave up a couple of hits, but they have the middle of their order...

We all love Johnny. We don’t want him to get hits against us. The fans were just showing their emotions. I think every player out there would rather be in that situation than having fans...

I wasn’t aware of that rookie record, and I really don’t care, because I just think he’s a good pitcher. I don’t know that those guys come along that often where you can rely on...

He’s going to have to be a little flexible, and we’ll work this out. If there’s not flexibility on his part, too, we’ll probably bump heads a little bit, but we’ll make it work.

I have a limited opinion on that. I want our guy to win.

We wanted to get him further in the game.

A win is a win, and that’s good. That’s what we set out to do. It wasn’t easy, but it ended up good.

The way Loretta handles the bat, even times when [Crisp] runs on his own and Loretta uses it to his advantage, that is going to create some good things for us.

I know he’s made some errors, but I still consider him reliable. You watch him on defense and you wonder if his legs are sore or if his back is sore. At the same time,...

It was nice. First pitch line drive. He ran the bases very well.

He wanted to go and have a little catch and get the blood flowing.

I’m a little surprised. I know they didn’t have video so I’m not sure what they’re going on. … It seems like a lot.

I think he felt like somebody might have pushed his buttons a little bit. I try to speak in generalities, because I don’t want to ever communicate through the media. I think he felt like...

We won 95 games in a season where things didn’t go right. I’m not going to apologize for that.

Oh yeah, that’s huge, … That was something we wanted to stay away from. That gets you in a tough situation ? up and down, pitch, don’t pitch. He’ll pitch tomorrow and it’s fairly normal,...

When the season is over, we want to be on top regardless of how we get there. A tough game tonight. Our job now is to show up tomorrow and be one run better instead...

What bothered me is that I just got a memo from the (American) League stating that when (umpires) meet it has to be conclusive. When an umpire in the middle of the field overrules it,...

There might come a situation where we might want (Mike) Timlin in there early, rather than wait for the perfect spot — the save situation — when we have a chance to lose in the...

He’s an awesome guy. He’s too good a kid and one of the best players in the league. All of the things that we bragged about the last couple of years, they just don’t go...

I heard him let out a little yelp. I had a good idea what happened. Either that or Tom Brady had thrown for a touchdown.

It worked out well. We put a nice crooked number up early and we got to stay away from some guys in the ?pen that we wanted to.

I would think it was FOX’s.

He’s still commanding the strike zone but he’s putting more aggressive swings as he gets older, more mature and stronger. It’s fun to watch. I have a lot of confidence in his ability as a...

Last year he learned how to be a major league starter on a real good team. He hit a couple bumps in the road earlier, but he’s good.

I think he’s hoping, if everything went well, he could be walking without crutches by the All-Star break. Then he could maybe start coming around on an everyday basis. I don’t think he’d be able...

We want him to continue to build, but it’s difficult. We’ll manage it the best we can. The more he throws 80, 90, 100 pitches and it doesn’t hurt, the more he’ll have a chance...

Regardless of how much (the suspension) bothered him or how he felt about things, he really did a good job to get ready for his start,

We talked this morning. The best thing to do for me with David is not talk to you guys because if it’s going to get [messed] up in the translation, it’s not worth it. If...

I’m happy for him because he’s out there competing. I think he’s probably really enjoying the fact that he’s not trying to keep that ankle held together with splints and all kinds of contraptions.

You run into nights like tonight, when you don’t have an answer for anything they’re doing and it only gets worse.

That’s not fair to him.

He was OK to stay in, but I didn’t think it was a smart thing to do. We go and get ice on it now, and not only do we hopefully have him (today), but...

You feel better after a win. But it’s not like we can live it up and pound our chests. We have to beat one of the best pitchers in baseball tomorrow.

I don?t think I ever remotely (doubted).

I do feel bad. I think it could have meant a lot to him. He’s very team-oriented. I know he’s very proud.

Before he could get in a rhythm, he was down four runs. He just didn’t have command of his pitches.

I think he’s been looking at his hands pre-pitch and where they are. He did the same thing last year. Out of the gate, you just lose your comfort zone for whatever reason. He’ll get...

I talked to Johnny and talked to [team medical director] Dr. [Thomas] Gill just now, and Dr. Gill said he’s already improving, which is real good news. I don’t doubt this will be a few...

He’s interesting. He’s a switch-hitter, he can move a little bit. Now that Alex [Gonzalez] is back, I don’t know how long we’ll keep him here but it will be fun to watch him play...

We asked a lot, physically, of people [in 2004] that I think may have hurt us this year. I don’t think anybody would trade that.