Quotables
Head Coach Willie Bloomquist
Opening Statement
“We were able to put up some singles there early on, get a lead, but we still got to stick to the approach. It’s kind of beating a dead horse, continuing to stay with an approach throughout nine innings. It's tough. They lose focus a little bit. They try to get big, do too much, and a lot of early swinging soft contacts, trying to do a little bit too much, but end of the day, they made some adjustments there in the sixth and we're able to string a few hits together and run them out of there, and put up a crooked number. Kind of got a little breathing room, which was nice. And then they did enough to get it done. But still, there's room for improvement.”
On Overbay’s pitching performance
“He was great. Started the game, pretty electric, throwing the ball really well. We had a pretty set pitch count on him, we didn't want to go much above 60 pitches with him today. It's a little shorter than he probably wanted, but we get to make that call, not him. And sometimes we're a little bit on the cautious side. But again, these guys' arm health is paramount for us, and we're going to need him to be a horse throughout the entire season, and specifically, once we start conference next week. We’re going to continue to stretch him out as the starts keep racking up. So he did exactly what he was supposed to do today, threw the ball really well, pounded the strike zone and had a couple walks- those were good pitches, but ended up walking a couple. But at the end of the day, he threw the ball really well.”
On Taylor Penn coming out of the bullpen and earning the win
“Penn's been great. He's been a nice shot in the arm. A guy who is used to being a starter so far in his career, capable of starting, but does a great job of just pounding the strike zone, throwing strikes. It's always great to have. He's last year's Jonah Giblin, if you will, where you can always count on Gibby to come in and pound the strike zone and throw strikes. As I say that, I think he walked the first guy he faced today, but that's uncharacteristic of T. Penn. He's usually a guy that's going to fill the strike zone up and make him swing the bats, and that's what we wanted in that situation. He does a really good job with that.”
On Landon Hairston’s 461 foot home run
“The power's in there with him. And I've been saying it all along, the kid is a great hitter, he’s getting more physical, and the older he gets, the more he's going to mature and get more physical, and then the power is just going to come naturally. So he's got too good a swing. When he tries to do that stuff, it doesn't happen. Like that pitch, he was sitting pretty dead red and got it and didn't get cheated and kind of caught all of it. So that was obviously a nice swing when all those elements work together. But he's obviously got pretty good pop.”
Pitcher Alex Overbay
On his first start
“I felt great. This has been my goal coming into this year, and I’ve kind of worked towards it. Me and (Pitching Coach) Jeremy (Accardo) talked all fall about adding that third pitch, that changeup, and, I think that was the biggest thing. I felt great and the team backed me up, so it's cool.”
On how his pitching is feeling
“My arm felt great, my body felt great, but that's just the good thing about our pen. We don't need to throw nine innings, because we have a lot of guys that can throw four or five more.”
Pitcher Taylor Penn
On how he has felt getting back into pitching
“I got back into pitching after being out for most of January and the start of February, so it was just a matter of building back up and whenever they throw me in, I'm getting an opportunity, I'm in the game, so I can't complain.”
On what it says about the pitching staff to be able to put a new starter in and put up eight scoreless innings
“Anybody can start a game or go into a game. We have a lot of people that can start. We have a lot of people that come out of the bullpen and give you some innings. So honestly, the way I look at it is, everybody's our ace. Whoever's on the field at the time is our ace, so that's just the way we look at it. The pitching staff is going to do good things.”
Infielder Garrett Michel
On how the team will improve going into conference play
“I think it's important to realize that we have 14 or 15 guys in our lineup that can really, really do damage, and so it's just trusting each other, and not stepping into the box with runners on and thinking anything differently than if you're leading off an inning. Realizing that the guy behind you has the ability to put a ball in a gap and score everybody on base just gives you confidence to step in there and it just frees you up and just gives you a lot of confidence.”
On how he is feeling as a player being in the lineup consistently and hitting the ball well
“It feels good. When I came here, I told (Head Coach Willie Bloomquist) Bloomy on my visit that I came here to win. I was like, I want to win, and I mean, we've done that so far. We've got a long way to go. We got a lot of things to work on, but this is the atmosphere that I want to be in. There's no better crowd than this, so this is exactly where I want to be.”
Outfielder Dean Toigo
On how the team will improve going into conference play
“There's always ways to improve. I'm never satisfied. It's baseball, We just have to hop back on the horse for the next game and go get the job done.”
On the growth he has seen from Overbay this season
“He's unbelievable. It's impressive to see. With what he's done so far, I know the sky's the limit with him. With the addition of the changeup and him dialing in his cutter, It's pretty impressive.”
