Tonight was, in my opinion, dramatically better than what we saw in Florida. In Florida, he battled, but his fastball command was erratic. Tonight, it was crisp, it was good to both sides of the plate. It's a big step forward for him.

This was a pretty good example of it.

We did a good job of coming back against a very good ballclub.

Every team needs people like that. It's not just what he does as a third base coach, and I happen to be believe he's very good at what he does. Having this guy as a buffer between my office and the clubhouse ... that's huge.

Did the starting pitcher give you a chance every fifth day to go out there and win? -- that's the biggest element I look at. (Santos) was pretty good at that last year.

First of all, I happen to think he was a pretty good player before he was selected to play for his country. I don't need to see him go play for Mexico to see that. But, absolutely, it can be a confidence-building experience.

Things are going to be done differently than they've been done in the past, I can promise you that. And it's going to be different in a good way.

I've never signed up for anything with the thought in mind that I wanted to be mediocre. I feel pretty good about it.

At some point in time you always face a little adversity. The good clubs overcome things like this.

As long as he keeps his focus and continues to realize there is no real opportunity to be satisfied and he maintains that hunger, ... he could wind up being a real good pitcher in the Major Leagues.

Zach Duke did a good job. He had to battle, obviously.

It's a good thing to see. You want to be cautious about where they are, not push too hard, let them work at their own pace, but you like to see them out there throwing a baseball.

It's going to be tough to score off us in the latter part of the game. If a starter has the know-how and capability of getting 18 outs with a slim lead, we're in pretty good shape.

Derek Lowe, for the fourth time in a row, was phenomenal, ... Not good. Not great. Phenomenal. ... I can't say enough good things about Derek Lowe the last four times he's pitched. Unbelievable.

I'm not sitting here suggesting that guys don't get hits on an 0-2 or a 1-2 pitch ... but ordinarily, on 0-2, you don't see balls get hammered. When you come up through a minor-league system, you know early on that when you get a hitter 0-2, a ball sitting right in the middle of the plate is not a very good location.

I'm not advocating we take the first pitch every time we walk up there. But, if you're going to take a swing at a first pitch, have it be a really good swing. If we keep preaching that, there won't have to be a whole lot said if you make a weak out on a marginally bad first pitch. It's not the way you play winning baseball.

I know the numbers didn't look too good. However, the thing I was very impressed is that he, for the most part, pitched ahead, threw a lot of strikes and threw some very good breaking pitches. He went after hitters, and that's something we are very interested in seeing.

If you want to swing off of live pitching, go right ahead. But recognize the fact of what a strike is and what a ball is. Let's get a good swing at a good pitch.

You want this whole environment to be fun for them. You want the game of baseball to be fun. You can have fun and also be involved in a businesslike manner and continue to utilize the techniques that we have been talking about over the course of these four days. You can get something done and have people going into the clubhouse with a good feeling about themselves.

One of the things that young players have to not only learn but gain an admiration for is the respect factor of the game and the people who have participated in previous years, and an understanding of the history of the organization they are playing in. It's an organization very rich in tradition.

We made the most of three first-inning runs. The reason: Derek Lowe. For the fourth game in a row, he's been phenomenal. Not good, not great, but phenomenal. I can not say enough good things about Derek Lowe.

He was terrific tonight. I certainly would hope that this is a game he can build on. He doesn't have anything left to prove in the Minor Leagues. He has to prove that he belongs here, and I think he started to tonight.

He was terrific. He looked like it was his third or fourth game of the spring, not his first. And I liked his approach at the plate, too.

Just giving him two or three days. Hey, that kid can fall out of bed and hit. The first game we played he had three hits and every one was smoked. I said right then, 'Let's put him in a humidor until Opening Day. Why does he need to be out here?

Pitching and defense has been the name of the game in baseball forever. I don't care what level you're playing at. My philosophy since I started managing has been that, before you can look at any other phases, you've got to feel fairly comfortable that you've got some people who can pitch and you've got to be able to catch the ball. If you can't do either one, your chances of being very good are slim.

That was his game to determine. It was his baseball game at that point. You have to give him the opportunity to finish it.

We had our chances to win that game, but it boils down, night after night, to the kind of game we had, and I say the same thing. We needed a situational at-bat to tie the game, then a two-out hit would put us ahead.

We had opportunities for this game to be different than it was. We let it get away from us and that happened in the top of the first inning.

We got the three runs in that inning and we didn't do anything else. That's our offensive game tonight.

We're not quitting, that's for sure. We've been in every single game and we've had a chance to win every single game.

When the first pitch of the game gets thrown, we've got four games to try to win. I'm certainly interested in doing that now that I am sitting in this office.

We were pitched to death. It's the best game that's been pitched against us all year.

Each and every time we creep back into the game, it's followed up by additional runs by the other side of the field. And when you're trying to play catch up, and it continues to go further and further away from you, you're trying to get back in the game three or four times a game that's tough to do.

Each time we creep back into the game, it's followed up by additional runs from the other side of the field. When you're trying to get back into a game three or four times a day, that's tough to do.

I started to fall in love with the game of baseball when my dad gave me my first set of baseball cards, ... I kept the ones I recognized. The guys I didn't were the ones I put in the spokes of my bicycle with clothes pins.

Think about the ... significance of ... how many at-bats he takes this year with men on base because the guy (Casey) hitting in front of him is going to be on base. There's going to be a number of times that he's going to come up to the plate with people on base and have the opportunity to either extend the inning, put a game away or extend leads. All those possibilities will be there.

I've never seen Curt Schilling go out and start a game with the intention of hurting people. But if you start hitting people in the head... you need to be very careful of that.

Sometimes it takes one at-bat in one game for the light to go on. You can accomplish a lot by doing what we were doing with Duffy today.

Offensively, we did some great things. To get back in the game in the manner in which we did took some great at-bats.

That's his game to determine at that point. You take him out of the game like that there, you bring in the bullpen and a mistake is made, a ball gets hit in the gap, and he's the pitcher of record in the losing decision, and he got to watch it on the other side of the dugout. I don't handle pitching that way.

As small an aspect of the game as bunting might appear to be to a lot of people, it's really important to me. The complexion of a game can change because you have the ability to advance a runner 90 feet. It's huge.

It's a tough game to lose after the manner in which we came back. One of the first things to stave off on the road is a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth. More often than not, it comes back to haunt you, and it did.

It's a tough game to lose after the manner in which we came back.

It's going to be just another game to those guys because they've been given at-bats. That's why they've been given at-bats, so that in a situation like this, they're ready and not rusty.

It was a great game. We did everything we could to win the game to avoid being swept.

That's a tough game to lose, and obviously we're being tested early.

I know he wants to retire from the game knowing he did it physically competing at the end, ... You have to admire that.

He's the consummate professional. He plays the game only one way and that's to win. I really think the fans in Pittsburgh are going to love this guy. He's their type of player.

The kid has the pitches to be very good. This was definitely a game for him to build on.

You want this whole environment to be fun for them. You want the game of baseball to be fun. You can have fun and also be involved in a businesslike manner and continue to utilize the techniques that we have been talking about over the course of these four days. You can get something done and have people going into the clubhouse with a good feeling about themselves.