Clint Hurdle Team Quotations

I've got an accountability and responsibility to do whatever I can to help this team win a ballgame,

Every team that added something is hoping that something pops. Their situation is not more removed than ours. We are moving forward with men that showed some value and took positive steps for us.

Whether it's an old team or a young team, ... there's a certain way the game has to be played.

I do believe we are in this position by showing patience and providing opportunities during the season. I don't want to take away from any momentum the team has gained.

Because they're capable of doing it. And obviously I think the other team would be the first one to tell you, they're not pitching like they can or like they need to. They're probably leaving balls up over the plate. We're getting some balls to hit, and we're hitting them.

Obviously, he is having a special spring. He's gained the respect of his teammates and he has gained the respect of the players he has played against. But the bottom line is it is spring training. The fact is there is going to be an Opening Day and he is going to have zero home runs.

He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time.

Teams had issues to deal with over the winter. We had less than most anybody because we had so much more movement the last few years.

We didn't play our best. We wobbled out of the bullpen, we got six runs on six hits and 10 walks, which probably wasn't very artistic from an offensive standpoint, but we played better than the other team tonight.

Do we look at Jason's three-plus years, or Cookie's two strong months? They both want to do it and that's good. They know they are going to match up with the top dog from the other teams more often than not, but they want to do it because they want the challenge. That's what you want to see in your pitchers.

The confidence that comes from getting on any type of run gives you that confidence once you initiate that run again. We've got to pitch well, we've got to play solid defense and we've got to get timely hitting and execute, which is what we did for the last three months last season - with a lot of guys people didn't know against a lot of teams with some pretty big names.

It's really nice for our team to get another road win, especially after a tough one-run loss. It's another step in the right direction for us, no doubt.

It was a nice challenge for him to be able to respond to that. We aren't in the same situation that some other teams are in. We can challenge some guys and see how they respond. That's why we ran him back out (in the fifth).

He is completely healed, and with his ability we believe he'll keep improving. I believe that. He believes that, and his teammates believe in him.

We'll show up. This is a road trip we have struggled with dramatically in the past. . . . We by no means take any team lightly.

All the teams in the West feel like they have a shot. We aren't involved in (the race). But we could be very involved.

If he wants to be back with this team it won't be as part of the starting rotation. He has to see the bullpen as his opportunity.

This team has gone about their business as good as any team I've played on or been around. That's the way they've gone about it since they showed up. There was just a lot of anxiety and inexperience for the first three months of the season last year. We cut a lot of teeth.

But we played better than the other team tonight. We won by one run.

Those are called shutdown innings. That's a big part of baseball. When you score, your opportunity to shut out the other team the next inning is there and you need to capitalize on them.