Mike Scioscia Last Quotations

Bart has been a little stiff the last couple of days. It started to knot up in the sixth and I said enough is enough. He's a little tight right now, but we don't think it will affect his next start.

He was fine last night. He was a little stiff today and got some treatment.

He's had better at-bats for the last two or three weeks. He's becoming productive. We need Fin. It's good to see him contribute.

He's a special pitcher. If you look at what he's accomplished from the middle of last year till now, I don't think there's a pitcher who can match what he's done.

John did something that he hasn't done since last year. He would bend but not break. He was good in the early going but it got away from him.

It is something that we would welcome, but it is not an absolute necessity, ... does not have to hit home runs to be productive. What we need is for his production to get back to where it needs to be. He is one of the premier RBI guys in the last few years and we need that to re-emerge.

We're going to have to face him (eventually), we don't look at it as catching a break. There is no denying he's a special pitcher, but the last couple nights (Joel) Pineiro and (Ryan) Franklin have pitched as well as anyone.

As a player, you're the first one to realize you're slipping a little bit, but you're the last one to know you've fallen off the slope and it's over.

Esteban is throwing the ball better than he had at any point last year so that is encouraging. There is going to be some decision to made that may or may not involve Esteban, but there is competition at every level. As long as he throws the ball like he is capable, then he should be a part of it. He had some rough spots last year.

His last 20 at-bats or so, he's really seeing the ball well. And tonight? You can't square up a ball any better than those couple of home runs.

I just saw Steve last winter when his son was pitching against my son. Everything was looking up for him and he looked great. It makes you numb when you hear about a situation like this. He had a roller-coaster ride.

These last 48 hours have been a blur. We were fortunate to hold on.

There's been no indication that there is any damage in there that would impact him moving forward. But they're going to do some tests and we'll get a better idea this week exactly what his status is. I think as soon as he came out of last night's ballgame it was pretty ominous and pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be able to help us in this series.

The last month of the season I think there were a lot of similarities that started to manifest in our club that did in 2002. I think our situational hitting all of a sudden got back to where it needed to be, we're running bases well. We're going to get a chance to get into our game hopefully, and if it can emerge like it did in 2002, we have a chance to get on that roll.