MLB Notes And Quotes From 4-13-09

“We talked about starting a pool or something of who would get there first in the dugout before the game. We probably would have if it had went one more day.” - Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox, on he and Jermaine Dye reaching 300 homeruns in back-to-back at bats. The White Sox beat Detroit 10-6.

“It’s definitely a different feeling in here. It’s like J.R. (manager John Russell) said, what you need to do as a team is put yourself in position to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing.” - Adam LaRoche, Pittsburgh, After the Pirates 7-0 win over Houston boosted their record above .500 to 4-3.

“I was aware, but I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was still trying to focus on making quality pitches, not so much how am I going to protect that, you know protect the no-hitter.” - Ted Lilly, Chicago Cubs, on taking a no hitter into the 6th inning and leading the Cubs to a 4-0 win over Colorado.

“We’re going to figure it out. I don’t know if it’s going to be tomorrow or it’s going to be June. I promise: We’re going to figure it out.” - Adam Dunn, Washington, After the Nationals dropped their 7th consecutive game, a 9-8 loss to Philadelphia.

“Dodger fans can’t expect this every day. The cycle is very hard. First of all, getting a hit is hard.” - Orlando Hudson, LA Dodgers, after hitting through the cycle and leading the Giants to an 11-1 victory over San Francisco.

“It’s one of those days. It was their day, an opportunity to celebrate what they did last season, and they had their way.” - Derek Jeter, NY Yankees, after getting beat 15-5 by Tampa Bay in a game where the Rays had 17 hits.

“Very cool. Maybe at the end of the season when I look back on this, I’ll have a greater sense of what happened here. But at the time, all I’m thinking is that it put us ahead.” - Jody Gerut, San Diego, after hitting a leadoff homerun in the first at bat, ever, at Citi Field. The Padres spoiled the Mets home debut with a 6-5 win.

“We got a lucky break Kinsler didn’t try to tag up, or else we’d still be playing.” - Gregg Zaun, Baltimore, on the Texas Ranger’s Ian Kinsler failure to tag up at second base on a line drive to the outfield. Kinsler’s out killed a 9th inning rally for Texas.

“I just tried to look for something in the strike zone—hopefully a fastball because he got behind the other hitters. I hit it in the perfect spot.” - Edwin Encarnacion, Cincinnati, on his grand slam that capped a 6 run rally for the Reds to beat Milwaukee 7-6.

“Mainly the first and third innings were the ones that had me worried the most, but luckily I got out of it.” - Zack Greinke, Kansas City, after his five innings of work extended his pitching streak to 25 scoreless innings. The Royals beat Cleveland 4-2 on Monday night.

“There’s a certain level for the game that you try to have, but sometimes in those situations you kind of want to stand there and watch it. You just try and do what you can to put the bat down and run around the bases the right way. It’s one of those where it’s hard not to watch sometimes.” - Travis Snider, Toronto, After hitting two homeruns to lead the Blue Jays past the Twins 8-6.

Despite playing their first seven games at home the Arizona Diamondbacks are only 2-7 on the season. Their latest loss was a 2-1 decision at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Oakland’s Kurt Suzuki has hit safely in all of his 13 career games against the Boston Red Sox. The A’s beat Boston 8-2 on Monday night.