Billy Gardner Quotations

He wants to learn. You take that work ethic and his physical ability, which he has a lot of, and you've got a player with a pretty good upside.

Every pitch and at-bat is important in the playoffs. Kids learn how to play in pressure situations and how to respond to them. They'll be better off down the road.

He was pretty good out there. He gave us a chance to win. That's doing his job.

Even with a five-run lead against a team like Lancaster, it felt like a one-run game. It was important for us to add to the lead and we continued to put together some good at-bats.

Every at-bat is critical in a tie ballgame like that. We kept getting guys on and in scoring position, but we just couldn't get that key hit.

We've seen it before and we didn't want to quit on an inning. It gives us momentum but the momentum is only as good as your starter taking the mound.

The plan right now is to expose them to both positions. I think the center field position is more of a high-visibility position. I think it pushes them defensively.

The off days will help physically and mentally. We're at a point where it's been a long season and everybody's looking forward to going home. But we're here for an extra couple of weeks and our focus is to win a championship.

The most important thing is that the guys in this clubhouse got better. We're in the development business and for the most part, they got better during the course of the season.

In the playoffs, some of these guys haven't been battle tested so you're never sure which way it will bounce. Although they're very disappointed, they're leaving here with a pretty good feeling about not only what the team accomplished but from an individual standpoint as well.