Wednesday, April 08, 2009

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.