Phil Garner Time Quotations

We're in a stretch of a bunch of day games. We don't bounce back as quickly as we used to. At this time of the year, whenever he can have a game off, it helps him a little bit.

We're going to have to take a personal inventory as a team. This is September, and this is no time to fool around. We need to pick it up a little bit. It is fortunate to lose two ballgames the last couple of days after having a nice streak and not lose any ground to the leaders.

He had to have a few stitches in his middle finger. He'll be out for a few days. We don't know a time frame on that yet.

He did OK, probably a little better than I expected for his first time out. He's a notoriously slow starter anyway, so I thought he was OK, pretty good.

Guys usually have a very difficult time crossing the diamond in the infield. But he's extremely quick, as quick as anybody I've ever seen at turning a double play. That's unusual for a guy to have such a strong arm, who can throw the ball across the diamond and then move to second and immediately be able to change his arm angle.

I think they're really good. Probably right on track. So we've got time to get them both ready and we can do that.

Wandy did a super job today and that was huge for us. Our pitching has done a marvelous job the last six games. You have to feel good any time they pitch, but I'd like to see our offense come around a little. The guys are grinding and by me saying this, it'll probably put more pressure on them.

This will be good for Brandon. He had a good amount of time off. I'm hoping he's healthy, and I think he will be. He needs to go out to pitch like it's the first game of the World Series.

There's several great points from our standpoint in that game. It was Backe's first time back, and he kept us in the ballgame. And Wandy Rodriguez, who has been a starter, he goes out and gives us one inning and kind of bridges our bullpen.

I spoke with (Everett) and things are going well. I told him to take whatever time he needs. And that could be tomorrow or the next day or the next.

I've been saying for quite some time now that Lamb is going to have to be a big plus for us down this stretch drive, and he is starting to swing the bat like we've seen in the past. It was a big lift tonight. We don't know how much longer Morgan is going to be out, but if he (Lamb) can step up and swing with power like we know he can, I think that will help everybody's confidence a little bit.

You don't want everyone hot all at the same time unless it's the last week of the season. You need to be able to win ball games without everyone being hot.

It's just something that's been a trait of ours all year, but we managed to win. It's like some of our typical games and somehow we managed to get through it. We didn't eke one out this time and that's unfortunate because we had been doing a pretty good job of coming up with runs somehow.

I told him to take whatever time he needed, to come back when he's ready, ... That may be tomorrow, that may be the next day or the next day after that.

It's time to start. Obviously we were a little behind with our bats, but it's OK.

I've had a hard time getting the message across,

They'll let Jimmy control the clubhouse, and he'll get the backing from the front office because of his good relationship with Dombrowski from their time together with the Marlins.

I debated about playing him today because he had two days off. He'll hit, but it's a good time to have a day. He'll get going with the bat here soon, and I'll want to play him every day.

I don't think he's going to be running for political office any time soon. He just enjoys pitching. If he could just move all this into his hometown, I think he'd be perfectly fine with that.