“Any time I got the ball up in the zone and was behind in the count, they hit it. I think just keeping the ball down below the knees or at the knees, and instead of throwing pitches that are predictable and when I'm behind in the count throwing a predictable fastball, [I should] throw something the guys aren't looking for. I think a lot of it for me now is I'm able to execute a lot of my pitches. It's just a matter of figuring out what they're looking for. Over time, since I've seen the hitters more, I've gotten better about doing that.”
“The fact that I was stretching my innings out at that point, I think that was a positive for me. That I was going out there expecting to go eight or nine innings instead of just the five or six [I had been pitching]. I had the mentality of going eight or nine.”
“A lot of things have to go right. You have to have a good defense behind you. I look at something like that, that's very hard. I could see maybe a closer doing it, someone like (Dodgers closer Eric) Gagne, if he pitched one inning at a time.”
“I mean the first one, obviously, I just flat out hit him. But the next two, I like throwing inside and I'm not going to back off. I can assure you I wasn't doing it on purpose. But that's the type of player he is.”
“I was putting the ball in play and the defense made a lot of big plays behind me. It gives you a lot of confidence when you can let them hit the ball and you know they can make the play.”
