Russ Ortiz Quotations

One of the things I noticed was how fast he was able to put the bat on the ball. He could recognize the pitch well before he had to swing, and then he would get around so fast, so hard.

Right now, and this is as honest as I've ever been, I'm not happy with the situation. I'm not happy having to go through this. There are a lot of things I don't have answers for.

I wish I could explain what happened. Nothing seemed to be where I wanted it and it was after Holliday's at-bat that it seemed to change.

I could see that they were serious, ... Winning's important. I wanted to be a part of what they're trying to accomplish.

I can almost guarantee you, ... I won't win it. I've talked to a ton of people who tell me, around the league, my name is never mentioned.

I am here to get ready for the season. My main objective is to throw good pitches. I want the guys to swing the bats and hit the ball. I was really happy for a while there, the fact I was getting ahead.

I felt like I could throw every pitch with conviction and not worry about my mechanics. The walks today came up and bit me. ... I just couldn't execute my pitches.

I felt like I was right around the zone the whole night.

I can't. I wish I could. Nothing seemed to be where I wanted it.

I thought all along I'd feel more confident up here than down there.

I think we felt pretty good about our bullpen, ... but, definitely, getting John back adds a lot.

I was trying to extend my running to make sure I was ready and felt something, and that's kind of where we're at right now.

It doesn't matter to me. I'm not worried about all that stuff. I don't want to be caught up in all that, ... I just want to pitch and whatever happens happens. It's been a lot easier dealing with it that way.

My changeup was better last outing. This outing it was half and half. My curveball was a lot better than it was the last outing. There are a lot of good things. The two walks and home run made it look worse. I am going to give up a run sometimes. If I commit myself to working to get ahead, we're going to be all right.

There's not too many guys out there who do special things that are noticed around the league. And it has to be something special -- like real special -- for people to take notice,

The thing that's frustrating to me is sometimes I feel like there's going to be days when I have to battle and today wasn't one of those days.

After the first three starts, I'm like, OK, now I have a feel for all my pitches so I was telling (catcher) Johnny (Estrada), let's use all three. I just want to build off this and try to get better as we go along.

After I threw my bullpen two days after that start, my leg was great. So there were no worries about that. My location just wasn't there at all today, for whatever reason. I'm doing the best I can to see if I can fight through it. After the first inning, I was hoping to just battle and give us five or six innings.

After I sat down and thought about it, I learned a lot about the game, about myself.

The most important thing is that I'm able to throw all my pitches for strikes.

It was the magnitude of the situation, in a game that was absolutely huge for us. We're not a team that shows a lot of emotion, and that's not a bad thing. But that situation was big.

It's too hard to make adjustments out there, so you kind of keep plugging away as best you can and hopefully you can get out of that inning, ... Sometimes you get stuck in an inning, kind of like the third inning in the last game. I couldn't get out of it. That's what I've always been able to do, is work through an inning.

It just wasn't there, for whatever reason. I did the best I could to fight through it, but it just wasn't there at all.

I made seven mistakes today. I got hit hard. What are you going to do? I wasn't very happy, obviously, to put us in that situation, but at the same time I guess it could have been a lot worse.

I never claimed to be anything other than the type of pitcher that I am, which is to go out and battle as hard as I can to get a win. And it worked. Everybody wants to harp on last year, but I was gone for the heart of the year, hurt.

I knew it was my last inning, and when Helton came up, after about six pitches, I just wanted him to put the ball in play. I started trying to be too fine with pitches, and trying to throw the ball in a good spot over the plate that maybe he'd put in play. But it was good to be able to be stretched out like that. It was nice to get up and down five times.

I'll throw off the mound and see where it's at. . . . We're going to evaluate it. Keep throwing and see how it feels.