Clint Hurdle Quotations | Page 5

We bit off a little more than we could chew. But they proved they could handle it.

One of the toughest things to do as a man in anything is to slow down when we're not doing what we think we should be doing. As men, we want to step on the gas. That's a defining point. It's a growth thing for me. It's the next step into a player becoming more entrenched at the Major League level, to have the ability to slow the game down.

One of the areas (Freeman) has had to target and work hard to improve on are (pitches) tight on him and things spinning away from him. Obviously we'd like to get him on base and see if we can get him in motion a little bit.

Obviously, we set the bar very high on the road, and we need to play better at home. We know that. When you don't pitch, hit or play defense, it's very difficult to win.

I thought he took a very positive first step. He didn't get outside of himself. In the first inning he was mid-20s in pitches, but he battled. He didn't give up a big inning after that. Any time there was traffic, he held runners well. He made pitches when he had to. He mixed his pitches. He held the left-handers very effectively. A big outing for him and a big win for us.

He is a ballplayer. He takes a lot of pride in what he is asked to do. He is comfortable with who he is and the skills he has.

He had a lot of good things going on tonight. He worked both sides of the plate. He was never behind in the count.

He had a chance to put the pitcher away and keep all those runs off the board but he wasn't able to do it and the inning unraveled on him. But he's got a few more starts. I don't have any major concerns about him.

He got the ball up early but settled in and gave us six strong innings. He was very effective.

He got off to a good run, but his command has become a little more inconsistent of late. He's got a history of issues with command. If his command doesn't get to be above average, he will fall in the line of a lot of pitchers who will show you a good game once in a while, and then you wonder why they don't have more success.