Torey Lovullo Quotations

I hate really making excuses for what happened, but he didn't catch many breaks. Jeremy didn't have things go his way. He's a pinpoint control pitcher and just fell behind a couple of hitters and didn't execute a perfect game plan.

He's a young pitcher who might have some confidence issues. A couple things might not have gone his way early and it's part of a growth process for him.

He gave us what he could. Unfortunately, he didn't have his best stuff today and we'll challenge him to improve next time. We are addressing that process (of jumping levels) and just challenging Jake to stay with a routine and pound the strike zone. He's got tremendous stuff and we still feel he can come out on the front end this time.

He made some big pitches when he had to and that's what we expect out of Jeremy. Over the past three weeks he's been outstanding. He's been a leader.

He made a couple comments to me at spring training that he no longer worries about going to first base and playing every day. He's more in a relaxed state. When you're a relaxed player, you'll do bigger and better things.

I think first and foremost we wanted to see out of C.C. was that he's healthy and that he could finish his outing. That was the most impressive thing about him. He attacked his hitters and he was in mid-season form.

Our approach was solid. We battled to get back into the baseball game and these guys tomorrow are going to figure out how to get the job done. I'm certain of that. It's just frustrating to go through. We had the right guys up at the right time and I'll take my chances tomorrow with that same group.

Listen, they've got some experienced players and they've got a lot of offensive potential. When they're as down as they were, you know they could come out fighting at any time.

That was the turning point of that inning and the game. . . . It's a tremendous play by somebody who does dazzling things every single day.

We finally got the big hit that helped us win the game. I think we ran into a pretty good pitcher that shut us down in game two.

Those first two runs, if you dissect what happened, they weren't well-hit balls. I think a young pitcher might get down on himself but I know that he reached down deep and said I'm OK. . . . He was in complete control of that game.

Those guys all want the ball and they will grind it out. Rob Bell for his third consecutive day went out and did a terrific job. It's either feast or famine. Sometimes a bullpen is so overworked and sometimes they don't get any work. For right now, they know they're going to get the ball.

First and foremost, what we wanted to make sure about C.C. was that he was healthy and he was able to finish his outing.

Every time I walk through those doors it feels like I'm home again. It's going to be a pretty exciting moment for me.

I've opened up in this stadium and it's been a tough go. We're excited to be going South and we're going as far South as we possibly can.

That game didn't have any rhythm or flow to it. It was just very ugly from the get-go.

I'll never second guess anything we do out there. We battled hard. We played hard. But we'll learn from this.

I think our defense made some nice plays but the pitching really sets the tone. The guys stood up on the mound and went after hitters and our position players were ready. We had some timely hitting. Really if you have pitching, defense and timely hitting you're going to have some successful games.

The eighth and ninth aren't exactly the way that we drew up our game plan. Hopefully it will be a learning experience for those guys.