Nobody here has taken him and put him in a chair and tried to get him wound up so tight that he can't perform by breaking down his mechanics, ... We've kept things as simple as possible for a young left-handed pitcher to go out there and perform. I really believe that, at this point and time in the season, this is one of the more challenging things that's happened to him in his career. This'll be a good barometer of who and what he is.

He has made progress every time he has gone out and played, ... We need to see if he fits with us going into 2006. We're pretty set with (right fielder Brad) Hawpe and (left fielder) Holliday.

He has said the same thing for three outings. I'd like to see him make an adjustment. . . . We have people in Colorado who have seen it, but it's been awhile. If he knows what's wrong, God bless him. Fix it. It's been a long time since Zach Day has pitched well.

When he plants his front foot and really stays behind his swing, he's got a little gap power. How it plays out, time will tell, but he has the ability to hit a ball out of the ballpark.

He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time.

I think by far and away he was way ahead of the pack at the time he went down. But the numbers he has now, they still spell out pretty good in the big scheme of things if you want to dissect numbers and break them down. Everybody else had an opportunity of three months to really put some distance between themselves and him and elevate themselves, but it didn't happen.

Matt has had his ups and downs the last few games. He delivered the big hit for us so this couldn't have come at a better time for him.

I was trying to shake some things up. I knew we'd lost six games in a row. I was going to jingle any time I had a chance to jingle today.

I thought he took a very positive first step. He didn't get outside of himself. In the first inning he was mid-20s in pitches, but he battled. He didn't give up a big inning after that. Any time there was traffic, he held runners well. He made pitches when he had to. He mixed his pitches. He held the left-handers very effectively. A big outing for him and a big win for us.

We had to revisit that from time to time. But by the end of the season, that added more volume to what he did accomplish.

We had our chances, but didn't come through. Now it's time to focus on the Reds.

Every year at this time of the season you tip your hat to them. If you ever get people saying that about your organization you are in good shape.

This will be a very exciting day for him. He's put in as much hard work into becoming a starting opening-day player as anybody that we've ever had. He's had 11 years in the minor leagues and to get this nod at this time in his career has to be very gratifying.

Every year you show up here, you at least have a fraction of hope. This year there's a lot more substance to go with that hope. They know (the division) is open. It's time to make a statement on the field.

It's a big pick-me-up. Some guys showed up big time tonight.

That's a big hit in this ballpark. He's capable of a lot of things and he's finding his own way to contribute. We have one big hit tonight. He had it and it's a four-run swing. He picked us up big time with the bat.

The bond is special between a father, especially relative to his father's age and the time (in his life),

It's Jason's time to take the next step, and sometimes when players can't get to certain places, it's up to a coach to take them there. I want him to know going in that I've got the confidence in him to do that. By giving him the ball Opening Day, I can't make a bigger statement than that.

I'm not sure how much we're going to let him swing the bat. He can be somebody else's laboratory experiment. I've had my time with it. ... I'm working on the premise that he can still hit.

I'm going to give him some time to work out of it.

His hip wasn't a factor. His command was an issue. He basically pitched out of the stretch the entire time he was out there.

He's welcomed the opportunity. There comes a point and time in your career where you do what you are asked to do.

If he stays the course with it, obviously he'd be thrown into the mix. But again, time will tell. Let him play. Let him finish the season the way he's been the last two weeks. Then we'll have a topic of discussion.

We've all put a lot of work in this project. The organization has put a lot of work in. He's put a lot of work in. Coach (Davey) Collins has put a lot of work in. When you put that much work in you want to benefit from it when it clicks.

We're going to give him a little more time to work his way out of it. He's an important part of the lineup without Todd. . . . He's not trying to pull everything. He's conscious of going to the right side. When he gets hot, he can do major damage.

We've seen him in a lot of different uniforms. You hope things work out for him.

Maybe we can give him some things to work on over the winter that will make him a little more fundamentally sound on offense.

One of the areas (Freeman) has had to target and work hard to improve on are (pitches) tight on him and things spinning away from him. Obviously we'd like to get him on base and see if we can get him in motion a little bit.

I don't care who you are, if you get called out publicly, it affects your focus and concentration. You can say it doesn't and you can try your hardest not to let it seep into your work or what you do. But that's something out of his control that also got thrown onto his plate that he needed to deal with.

I had a script but didn't need it. There's no chance for this to work unless his head and heart are in the right place, and they are. He's not a 23-year-old kid pushing the older guy out of the rotation, and he realizes that.

I think the jury is still out on his bat. We'll work more with him and maybe see if there's a little more there. We're not talking about hitting home runs. We want him to be more consistent with the barrel. He's shown some improvement.

I think we've talked about it all -- his humility, his work ethic. He has a unique passion for the game. He leads by example. In the groups that he's been in, that's been talked about.

That was the result of a lot of work the last three weeks, in which (Francis) analyzed what had been happening.

We are a work in progress. These guys had a lot of baggage laid on them last year. We weren't that good last year. There were a lot of young players cutting their teeth, but they also are players who came up together (through the farm system) and had success together. And they want to have more success together.

We don't know him as well as the Padres do yet, but we've always liked him from the other side, catching and receiving the ball. Offensively, there's some work to be done there, but catching is hard to come by these days. Everybody's looking for it right now. We like the depth we have.

We've only won 62 games this year. We've still got a lot of work ahead of us.

This will be a very exciting day for him. He's put in as much hard work into becoming a starting opening-day player as anybody that we've ever had. He's had 11 years in the minor leagues and to get this nod at this time in his career has to be very gratifying.

You have to like what you see. His humility. His work ethic. His passion for the game. . . . The beauty of a young player is when they force your hand.

They got their work in and built up their pitch count, which is all we wanted.

It's been a little rock in our shoe. We'll work it out. We ran the bases outstanding all spring. For whatever reason we've made some mistakes on the bases. We'll get it tightened up. We've got the athletes to do it.

I want him to do some more work on some of the things we talked about coming up from Triple-A. He worked this afternoon with Davey on reads and breaks in the outfield. There were some things we wanted to check on and try, and tighten up for him before we went ahead and got him involved. He'll get in over the weekend.

Nothing provides an opportunity for growth more than adversity. They can handle it one of two ways: they can deal with it, become better from it, work through it. They can feel sorry for themselves and make a bad situation worse. So, it's all part of growing up and I expect them to handle it very professionally.

I'm going to give him some time to work out of it.

I'm happy for him. We've all put a lot of work into this project. He's put a lot of work in. The organization has put a lot of work in. Coach Collins has put a lot of work in. If a guy's going to pop, you sure would like for him to pop on your watch, in your organization.

His humility, his work ethic and he has a unique passion for the game. And he's going to be what, 21 next month? So, he just needs to play, and we'll see how it works out. The beauty of any young player that can play is when they force your hand.

But to get out of there with three runs, he did OK. He got some things accomplished but he's got work in front of him.

We need cleaner innings from the bullpen. He has had a lot of people on base when he has been out there.

Leaving a game in the fifth inning I wouldn't think would make any pitcher happy, ... Sometimes different things will motivate people different ways.

He has said the same thing for three outings. I'd like to see him make an adjustment. . . . We have people in Colorado who have seen it, but it's been awhile. If he knows what's wrong, God bless him. Fix it. It's been a long time since Zach Day has pitched well.

He has that strikeout pitch. When you can strike people out you can paint yourself into a corner because you have that way to get out of it.