MLB Notes And Quotes From 4-7-09

“Opening day, there’s a lot of emotions. No matter how long you’ve played the game, you still get jittery, you still get that nervous excitement.” – Jim Thome, Chicago White Sox, on Tuesday’s season opener where he hit a 3-run homerun in the eighth inning to lead Chicago past Kansas City 4-2.

“When you’re a Cy Young winner, there’s going to be a target on your back.Milwaukee was trying to get aggressive, and they’ve got a good power team. They probably wanted to do as many things as they could to me.” - Tim Lincecum, San Francisco, after struggling from the mound in the Giants 10-6 win over Milwaukee.

“He did not make it easy for us. On an opening day, he looked like his old self.” – Joe Madden, Tampa Bay Manager, on the Opening Day performance of Boston pitcher Josh Beckett.

“You always want to get off to a good start, but you can’t repeat until you play 162 games,” – Jamie Moyer, Philadelphia, after Tuesday’s 4-0 loss to Atlanta dropped the Phillies to 0-2.

“This is not what to expect during the year for anyone watching on the outside. This is more of a fluke, last year was more of habit. You won’t see this that much.”

“We’re too good of a ballclub with too good of an attitude for this to happen on a daily basis.” - Brandon Inge, Detriot, After Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to Toronto gave the Tigers an 0-2 start to the season.

“Nothing good, nothing good, from the start of the game it was an uphill climb for us. Then, it just got worse.” - Scott Olsen, Washington, after the Nationals were hammered 8-3 by Florida on Tuesday.

“(Ryan) Dempster did a nice job. He gave us six good innings. We just didn’t score any runs.” – Lou Piniella, Chicago Cubs manager, on the performance of his starting pitcher in the Cub’s 3-2 loss to Houston.

“It felt like we beat the White Sox. I was expecting champagne to be in the air when I got in the clubhouse, but it was only the first one of the season.” - Denard Span, Minnesota, on the Twins first win of the season, a 6-5 decision over Seattle.

“I wouldn’t want to pitch against us right now. Hopefully, we can have more nights like tonight.” - Kyle Lohse, St Louis, on the Cardinals offense after Tuesday’s 9-3 win over Pittsburgh. The Cardinals had 12 hits, including three 2-run homers, against the Pirates.

“I saw 97s. I saw 98s. You try to make him get the ball down, because you are not going to do much with your bat up in the zone. He’s a tough guy to get the bat on.” – Bob Melvin, Arizona Manager, on Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Colorado bead the Diamondbacks 3-0 on Tuesday night.

“You could just feel everybody kind of relax. We pushed that first run across and it was like, `OK, now we’re on the board. Now we can go. We’re not going to be shut out again.’
“Once we did that, I think everything started to take off.” - Jason Giambi, Oakland, on the A’s offensive performance Tuesday night. Oakland plated 6 runs on 16 hits in their 6-4 win over the L.A. Angels.

“All game I was falling behind in the count I have to make better pitches, especially in situations with runners on.” - Randy Wolf, L.A. Dodgers, on losing to his former San Diego teammates, 4-2, Tuesday night.