Dave Duncan Game Quotations

Mulder really deserved this game today, because he's probably had the opportunity, or been in position, to win four or five games that we let get away from us after he's been out of the game. It's nice for him to get a special win, and I know this is special for him.

He's just trying to do too much. Is it because he goes 4-5 (in his last nine starts before the game)? Somewhere in there you do something different, and if you get off your game it's easy to talk about and not easy to get back on it. He needs to get back on his game.

When you have a number of guys expressing concern, naturally you share their concern. And there's not much you can do about it other than get frustrated and maybe scream and holler a little bit. But you certainly can't change it. You'd like to think you're getting a fair shake. It has the appearance of being one-sided. And over the course of the game that kind of weighs on you.

If Looper gets his game back, which I expect he will, he can contribute as much as Tavarez, if not more.

I'm not ready to make a decision based on today's game. It was the first game of spring for both those guys. If it was the fourth game of spring, I think it would be looked at a lot differently than it was today.

He's shown that he has the ability to pitch at the major league level. Opportunities come in different ways. When you get them you have to take advantage of them. If he makes our ball club he'll probably appear in the middle of the game as a situational type left-hander.

Thursday's game (against the Padres) was tough because there were so many left-handed, right-handed situations,