Baseball Notes And Quotes From 4-12-09

“Whether you’ve been in the game 10 years or it’s your first time, you feel a little nervous. This game meant a lot because you don’t want to fall too far back.” - Kerry Wood, Cleveland, After striking out the side in 13 pitches in the 9th inning for the Indians first win of the season. Cleveland beat Toronto 8-4 on Sunday.

“I was able to get guys out when I needed them, but I threw too many pitches. This is frustrating, because we start with a sweep at home and then get swept here.” - Kevin Millwood, Texas, After Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Detroit completed a sweep for the Tigers.

“I said before the game I was going to go eight or nine innings. I finished what I started out to do. That’s huge for me.” - Josh Johnson, Florida, after pitching a complete game against the NY Mets on Sunday. The Marlins beat the Mets 2-1.

“They knew I was throwing strikes. I was hitting my spots on the outside corner, but keeping them honest on the inside part of the plate. They couldn’t lean out over the plate.” - Aaron Harang, Cincinnati, After throwing a complete game shutout against Pittsburgh.

“We have to forget this ever happened.” - Scott Olsen, Washington, After Sunday’s 8-5 loss to Atlanta left the Nationals 0-6 on the season.

Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria went 3-for-5 from behind the plate on Sunday with a homerun. He now leads the majors with 5 homers.

“He was just asking me how I do it. He said, ‘I look up there in the first inning and I see a pitch 78 miles an hour. I don’t know how you get guys out.”’ – Mark Buehrle, Chicago White Sox, discussing his on the mound conversation with manager Ozzie Guillen. Chicago beat Minnesota 6-1 on Sunday.

“I blew the game. I didn’t give myself a chance by getting ahead of the hitters. When you don’t do that, you give them a chance. I don’t have any excuses. I stunk it up pretty bad and ended up costing Joba a win.” - Phil Coke, New York Yankees, after giving up the winning run to Kansas City in New York’s 6-4 loss on Sunday.

“I try not to think about it like that. I’m privileged that they thought that much of me to give me a four-year deal. That’s part of the job, to go out there and be professional about it, get your work done even when no one’s looking.” - Kyle Lohse, St. Louis, When asked about his new 4 year $41 million deal he got in September. After Sunday’s 3-0 win over Houston Lohse is 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA.

“That’s a tough job to do, and he does it pretty good. Hitting a pinch-hit home run is pretty hard, especially when they know what kind of hitter he is.” - Phillies manager Charlie Manuel on pinch-hitter Matt Stairs’ game winning two run homerun in the 9th inning to beat Colorado 7-5.

“I’ve never hit anybody in the head, and it’s not really on my list of stuff to accomplish. But people can think what they want to think. I know Bobby Abreu. He knows I’m not trying to hit him in the head. Obviously, there’s been a lot of emotion in this series with them—not only facing us, but obviously the tragedy that all of them went through.” – Josh Beckett, Boston, after a wild pitch, over the head of Abreu, caused a bench clearing brawl. The Angels beat the Red Sox 5-4 on Sunday.

“A lot of people out there don’t have high expectations for us. It is a long season. We’ll temper the excitement. But I think it is good for us to get some confidence and really believe in ourselves.” - Chris Young, San Diego, after the Padres sweep of San Francisco moved their record to 5-2.

“You see the other guy throwing zeros and you want to do the same.” - Erik Bedard, Seattle, after winning a pitching duel against Oakland’s Trevor Cahill 1-0.

“They could have gotten the fourth out with an appeal at third base, but they didn’t do that before leaving the field. We had about six rules involved here.” - Umpire Charlie Reliford on Arizona’s failure to appeal a run scored by the Dodgers’ Andre Ethier in which he failed to tag up.

“What a great play. This kid, he’s a ballplayer— old-fashioned, hard-nosed ballplayer.” – Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella on Reed Johnson’s leaping catch over the wall that robbed Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder of a grand slam. The Cubs won 8-5.