Kevin Millwood Quotations

We're playing as good as anyone right now. Our starting pitching has been good all year, our bullpen is the best in the league, and now we're starting to get production from the bottom of our order, which is huge.

No, but it doesn't bother me. I just appreciate the fact that he cares so much about everything.

I feel like I'm moving along pretty good. I wanted to make sure I could put my fastball where I wanted it, and I think I did that.

I feel like I'm right where I need to be. I finally got that long-term deal, and I've gotten it at a good point in my career. I feel like I can perform well through this whole contract.

I threw too many bad pitches. I stopped locating pitches. It was a frustrating day, whether it was opening day or not. I'd be frustrated by this kind of performance in July. I'd be frustrated by this kind of performance if I won. I expect a lot more out of myself.

It happens. You can't blame anybody. We did it in Oakland to those guys. It's part of the game. There's not much you can say.

I was working on throwing changeups and fastballs to certain spots. It felt pretty good out there. Yeah, I'd say I'm where I want to be at this point.

Our season is going to come down to how we pitch. We know we are going to score runs.

I was trying to get my mechanics straightened out and I think it paid off. I felt normal for the first season, even in Spring Training. Seeing it is not enough, I need to feel it and tonight I could feel I was in the right groove.

I was tired of being on one-year contracts. It was nice to have a good year in a free-agent year and be able to get a longer deal. It's made me more confident and mentally got me back to where I was a couple of years ago.

It felt good today. It was really windy out there. That was a crazy home run. ... The only bad stretch were the two walks.

We were going to drop a bomb on that conditioning field out there but ...

Facing batters who are swinging the bat gave me a chance to see whether I'm being deceptive with my pitches. The best thing was having an umpire behind the plate for the first time. It gave me a better read about what I'm doing instead of having coaches tell me my pitches look good.

This will be my third opener. The first at home. I'm looking forward to that.

We were pretty much in the playoffs until this last week.

Sometimes, it's tougher to face guys you don't really know. I think I faced three or four of those guys in the past.

No, run support is not going to be a problem.

It means a lot to a team when you can match up against any upper-echelon pitcher and win.

It means a lot to a team when you can match up against any upper-echelon guy and win. But these guys had a lot to do with it -- they put up good at-bats and scored some runs and that made it a little easier on me.

It's been pretty frustrating. It's obviously not the start I'd like to get off to, but there are a lot of good things I can take from today and build on. After the first inning, I pitched pretty well. I felt like I was able to settle in and get a lot of guys out after that.

It's confusing. You watch the guys in front of you but you're also watching the guys behind you. You get here, and you keep forgetting you're actually out front (by a game and a half) in one of these situations. It's definitely a weird situation to be in.

I guess you could say we finished the way we started.

Being No. 1 only counts in the first round. Everybody has to believe they're No. 1 when they go out there or you're in trouble. ... It's all about giving your team a chance to win and avoiding long losing streaks.

You can number your starters one through five if you want. But every guy that goes out there has got to pitch like a No. 1 guy. If you don't, then you're in trouble.

And it's not like the game's only been around 20 or 30 years. For him to be doing something that nobody's ever done before ... yeah, it's legitimate. It's very legitimate.