I told the guys in the bullpen they're going to get used.

They might be one-batter guys or two. Got to see what they look like.

A lot of guys could have said I'll take the surgery and take their time coming back. But he got back out there because he felt a responsibility to this team and I applaud him for that.

They're trying to find a rhythm and everything, so guys like that, you just let them do their thing.

This is something we're doing because we want to get guys out here, see what we have, get acquainted, all that stuff. ... It's nice to kind of get an idea of what you'd like things to look like.

The thing I liked about today more than anything was we picked each other up. I really thought the pitchers did a nice job of picking guys up and we had to scratch for some runs, but the bottom line is that Billy came in and closed it on a great throw by Carlos.

You go through the first loop and you make a few adjustments so it's accommodating in some ways to players and getting their work in. Last year I wanted to set the tone with a hard workout and get guys' attention, and get guys working and to understand that's what we're here for.

You guys must not have much to talk about.

We have 25 games left, and we have to go for it, ... I want to make sure that my next five guys know what they need to do and know that they're going to pitch and they can get themselves ready for the ballgame. This gives them a better chance to just lock in.

This was the perfect time to do it. I always like to let the guys know where I'm coming from. We talked hitting, we talked defense. It's something I don't think we do enough of in baseball.

We've got three or four guys on the depth chart who might step up and knock my socks off.

Those are the guys we have to go through to be where we want to be. We're looking forward to that challenge.

We could look at guys we might normally not see much of in spring training, and this could pay off later in the season if we need to bring somebody up.

We had to. You have guys that tweak a hamstring and walk off the field. But any time you've got to be helped off the field, you're not going to be making your next start. There's no reason to take a chance on hurting him and pushing that. That to me was no question. There's no way in the world he's going to be able to go in time.

You kind of flinch a little bit, when you see can see that both of them have a bead on it. When the guys start laying out a little bit, leaning toward the ball, that's when you assume that maybe something nasty could happen. Very scary.

That was something that I usually like to do periodically, but today was a perfect time to do it. I always like to let guys know where I'm coming from and what I expect. It worked out good, because if we were on the field, we probably wouldn't have had it.

Just because that last four or five guys don't look too promising, anything can happen.

Some guys take a little longer to exhale. It's a natural thing, a human thing. I think that most of the guys I've seen in the league, as time goes on they get more and more comfortable. I hope that's the case with him.

Overall I was pleased with the spring. All the guys who played in the World Baseball Classic came back healthy. We're ready to go.

Keep it going, I love it. The guys were having fun tonight and obviously everyone was making a contribution. That's what you need to do the job on the road and hopefully we can get something special going.

Carlos can hit anywhere. He's one of those guys who can adapt to any situation, I believe.

No, not necessarily. You might look at our rotation and say he's pretty much in there, but I'm never going to say that because you don't know. We have three or four guys in the back of the depth chart that might step up and knock my socks off. He has to compete.

There are other guys who might be in front of him, anyway.

It's nice to talk about where guys are going to finish and what guys are going to do, but to me until you knock off the big boys I think it's fair to say they are the favorites. I feel good about our chances, obviously, and preach to our players constantly about winning. But you've still got to do it first.