Ron Gardenhire Good Quotations

(We're) facing a hot team that's got everything going for them. And we're not really locating the ball as good as we can. That's what it comes down to.

We're getting down to a few numbers where we can work it a little easier and not try to get everyone in. We want to start stretching out our players and take a good look at some of these guys that are battling each other and battling for positions on this team.

Three runs in seven innings, that's pretty good pitching, really. He pitched his tail off. Hernandez just pitched better. We didn't swing the bats well tonight. We hit a few balls hard. He definitely shut us down. It was a disappointing night for us.

We know he's the one guy who's a little bit behind where he would normally be. No excuses. He had good stuff tonight, but he's not exactly perfect right now with his location and as good as we've seen him.

We made a good stand here against some very good baseball teams. We're .500 against four teams that are all going to be contending for the playoffs. We're standing at .500 here after a tough start, and we've really battled back to get to .500. And you know what, that's not bad.

Omar was probably the most well-respected, popular player they've had here, but Peralta has done a very good job.

Castro is very good at short. He's very quick up the middle. We've known that forever about him. He's going to prevent some runs. That's what he does best.

He was breaking a lot of bats early in the game. His cutter was getting in there. He had good stuff tonight. The ball was jumping out of his hand.

He had good deception tonight. The ball was going in there pretty good, he made some pitches. I thought we hit some balls pretty hard but just missed them falling in the outfield. But he pitched good enough and mixed it up good enough to beat us.

He gets a little lazy at times on the drills. But he knows what he's doing on the mound. He's a good fielder; he just gets a little sloppy at times. We talked to him about that. He's handled himself very well.

He needs to go down and get everyday at-bats rather than sit up here on the bench. He's missed a year-plus of baseball. We brought him up here and kept him up awhile to see where he's at. He's doing pretty good after being out a year of baseball.

We've got to play a very good Detroit team, and obviously, we didn't swing the bats very well in the first two games (in Kansas City). So, righting the ship, that comes over a long period of time.

We thought we were ready leaving Spring Training. We were playing very good and swinging the bat good and everybody thought they were where they needed to be.

He's a good ballplayer. When he's healthy, defensively he's all over the field. All we can hope for is he's rusty.

He's having a little bit of a rough time swinging right now, and we'll see if he can put some good swings on the ball tomorrow and go from there.

He's got the contract thing, the whole package. When you're in your contract year, you start thinking about it. Guys that can play a little bit usually get after it pretty good. We figured he'd be on a pretty good mission.

He's a very talented player and we're not afraid to put him in any situation. He handles himself pretty good, has a good smile on his face, is a nice young man and knows how to play the game. And he's getting better and better.

He's going to be out a good amount of time. I'm not going to say he's going to be out for the rest of the season because Torii bounces back pretty good. But you add it all up, and it's close.

He was ready. He stepped into a good situation. It was fun to see.

He didn't even move. He just stood there at second. I talked to him in the dugout and he said he thought the ball was going to go foul. You still would be running. To me, that's not a good enough answer. So I just put the other guy out there and we move on.

This was a good win for us. To come out and score some runs and get a lead, we haven't done that very often. It was fun. The guys got to run the bases.

Kenny Rogers is not the guy he likes to face very often, so we sat him out. But he was ready to play. We've lost a lot of people, and Jacque is one guy who needs to step up.... Hopefully that's a good start for him to get on a roll.

J.D., we're looking for a little more consistency from him. People talk about him being passed by, but he has the chance to be a good pitcher in this organization. He can't wait to get the ball. We like guys like that. He doesn't come in with a chip on his shoulder.

Our pitching is pretty close to where we need to be. I think we're going to be fine. It's not going to get easier going into Cleveland (this weekend). We're going to be playing a lot of good baseball teams early, so you're not going to be able to breathe. You've got to keep grinding.

I tell him to keep swinging and good things will happen.

That was good enough for me. He wants to play. It's frustrating for him not to play. It was driving him crazy. On the bench in Chicago, he was going nuts. Hopefully, we can get him healthy and keep him on the field.

We have a lot of good hitters in our lineup. We're just not clicking yet. We have one good day and one bad day. We've just got to get a little more consistent as a whole unit.

We had good at-bats from the sixth inning on. We really pushed the issue, kept battling and got a lot of two-out hits.

You know we have a good clubhouse. We just had some people who were frustrated. It wasn't about guys hating each other. You know, winning really heals things.

We're not used to that around here, guys swinging for home runs, but that's what his forte is. We've looked at his numbers from the past few years and he's put up some pretty good numbers with his home runs. That's what he does. He's going to do that -- we hope -- a lot, and that's what we ask of him, is to swing.

We played a pretty good team that has a changed lineup. We battled. We're OK. I like how we competed here.

We're not giving him a spot by any means. He has a good edge in there. ... But he still has to come out.

We actually scored six runs out there today, and most of the time when we score six that's good enough for our pitching to stop them. It just didn't work today. They were swinging, and we didn't make enough good pitches.

Tough loss for us. We pitched good enough to win. We didn't score enough runs.

We think we've got a pretty good player here that is going to help us do some damage this year.

We think we have some pretty talented people that can help us do the things we need to do, and they've been good out in the clubhouse up to this point. We'll wait and see. It's going to be a long year, but up to this point, it seems like there's a nice flow going.

The good news is that we'll get his innings stretched out and he'll be somewhat ready to start the season. Whether it's here right away or down the road, he'll be on that schedule.

We've got a good enough pitching staff. I'm not worried about them. I think they're pretty good, and I think they're gonna carry us as we go along.

This year he's been very, very solid. As good as they get in this league. We haven't exactly scored a lot of runs. We know that. But he's backed it up.

We talked about a lot of things, things that weren't handled very good and we got it straightened out. It was a good conversation. We'll go about our work.

We were playing a very good team here with a changed lineup and I think we battled pretty good in the series. Our pitching is pretty close to where we need it to be. I think we're going to be fine.

Very smooth. His range is not as good as it once was, but you saw him charging in on a slow roller and making it look very, very simple.

We feel pretty good when you start writing out a roster. Even with the injuries, it's not bad.

Another great pitched game by Johan. Another loss for a good pitching performance.

The way Lew is playing, he deserves to be out there. He's been our igniter lately, the guy that's really been playing. He's doing a lot of good things for us so we have to keep him in there.

The story has always been with him that he's a sloppy practice guy, but a good game guy. He's gotten better at his practice now, and a lot of people talked to him about that, working on some drills. He's grown up a little bit and made his presence known this year in camp.

No matter how good he did, he wasn't very happy at the end of last year. It wasn't about the awards or anything else. It was about us not winning - and not getting back to the playoffs. That tells you a little bit about his makeup.

And that's a pretty good formula. You get your starter to go eight or nine innings and you hit three-run homers. Normally it works out pretty good.

Baker was fantastic. He used his breaking ball, his changeup and had the high fastball working. He located pretty good. He gave us a great chance to win. It's unfortunate we couldn't score enough runs for him. Rincon came in and had two good innings for us, got out of the one, which was huge. Then we finally come up with the big base hit.

That's where Lew has been working hard. There were a couple of times in spring where he just flung it again. We're trying to get him to be a bit calmer out there. He's a good outfielder. He just has to calm down.

That's your shining light right now. Maybe this is a cure all. Maybe we'll come home and play better baseball. Sometime we are going to have to figure out a way to play better on the road, too, but first come home and play good baseball and then go from there.

You take the good and bad when you're talking about a power hitter. We're looking for someone who's going to hit those three-run homers and get you back into a game or blow the game open. He's a guy that has that ability.

A lot of things got straightened out. It was a good conversation, ... Both parties learned a little bit about what each other is thinking and what's going on. It helped me. I'm sure it helped J.C. I learned a lot from him.

They kind of whacked us around. Joe was up in the zone and they pretty much hit everything he threw up there. And that's a pretty good formula. You get your starter to go eight or nine innings and you hit three-run homers. Normally it works out pretty good.

They have good pitching. They can throw. They got a good middle of the lineup. They're catching the ball in the middle of the infield. They're playing very aggressive. They're doing the things that we have to do to get back in it.

At least there's a positive in that he's not going to have any sort of major reconstruction done on the tendon or anything torn up in there. It's good bad news.

It's just going to be if he feels good enough to do those things. We like to run. He'll definitely have the chances.

It's a tough time for everyone. I'm sure Minnesota Twins fans are hurting. It's very painful right now. But the good thing is that we all know where Puck is going to be -- he's going to be up in heaven whacking the ball around.

It was a very nice series for us, after coming off a tough road trip. We came back home and did what you have to do to get righted. Guys are now getting into a bit of a groove and playing good ball.

It's a good start. I don't know about clicking. If we can continue that, I'll talk to you in about a week.

It's not going to be a very good day. We've had people who have played very well who we're going to have to send down. Sometimes, you can have a great spring, and it's just not going to work out roster-wise.

It was good to win the series and take two of three against one of the hotter teams. We had some big hits. Redmond was huge and Shannon had a big hit for us. We need to keep winning series.

It was good to see Kyle Lohse throw the ball good. He located it. He didn't try to overdo it.

They can pitch, catch the ball and swing the bat. It's a very good baseball team. They put a lot of money into it this winter and it will be a fun opening series for us against a good baseball team.

They brought some people in here that have good numbers against Johan. I was looking at it before the game. I knew Molina had done well.

Not very many teams have been very good against him.

Their bullpen came in with some nasty people. We haven't faced those guys, and they were making some good pitches and locating the ball very well.

I'm going to start him, too. I'm going to try to get him at-bats. You can't be a good hitter off the bench unless you get at-bats and get a good feel for it. You can't just sit there and get one at-bat a week or every three days.

I'm proud of the guys. To come back from 5-0, we lost the game, but we put up a pretty good fight. But that's not what we need right now. We need wins.

I loved watching Ozzie manage in the other dugout and he manages just like he played. He had fun playing the game and he manages having fun and that's the way we should all try to do it. I think he set a pretty good tone.

If you have two different theories for where you hit in the lineup, you're a pretty good hitter.

I personally think he handles himself good when he's out there. He's a little more relaxed. Third base is a hot spot. He handled it fine, he did fine, but I think he handles playing out there a lot better.

Before he got hurt, he was a pretty good hitter. He had great hands and a very quick bat. He seemed to know what he was doing.

His location is not there, obviously, as his fastball was jumping all over. But the ball was coming out of his hand good, he threw free and easy and felt no pain, so that's a good thing.

Him playing in Japan last year kind of leaves us a void here as to what he's going to look like. We were told he was in good shape here and ready to go. He's excited about being back here and he's excited about being back with the Twins, so those are all good things. If he comes here in shape and healthy, then he can be a big plus for our team.

He threw well and felt fine afterward. That's good news.

He threw as good as we were expecting and hoping he'd throw, ... He was throwing the fastball, using the fastball, locating the fastball and working off of that. Once he does that, his slider and changeup are unbelievable.

You could tell he got frustrated after the big one out there in the gap, where he gives up three more. You know he's frustrated and then he makes a couple more pitches up and they hit a couple of bullets off him. So he's just frustrated right now. He makes a good pitch, they hit it, makes a bad pitch, they hit it. It's just not working out for him right now.

You can't be a good hitter off the bench unless you get some at-bats. You can't just sit there and get one at-bat a week or one at-bat every three days. He's been on a lot of different avenues in the big leagues and done a lot of different jobs with a lot of different teams, and he knows how to handle himself.

This hasn't righted the ship. We're still an under-.500 team. But it's a good feeling.