Innings Quotations

The Nationals tried hard to recover the lost ground. The final result, however, was the success of the Forest Citys by a score of 29 to 23 in a nine innings game, twice interrupted by rain.

I wouldn't throw all spitballs. I'd go maybe two or three innings without throwing a spitter, but I always had them looking for it.

To participate in a World Cup is a great honour and achievement. I've played in three World Cups. The whole world watches you during a World Cup and expects you to play innings to win games for your country.

Like an author, a cricketer signs his name on every innings he bats or bowls in; indeed for every cricket ball that challenges him on the field.

In sport, there is always room for improvement. Whenever I see my innings against the West Indies or Australia, I think, 'Maybe, I could have done this better or should have changed that.' See, cricket is a skill game, and one can always improve upon the impact one has on an innings.

I was going to let him go out of the windup to 80 pitches. If anything was in the stretch, he was out. He could have finished that inning. But we had a number in our mind. You know six innings was a bonus.

I was pleased with the guys' hitting today. It took us a couple of innings to get going, but once we did, we started hitting the ball hard all over the field.

I would say he threw pretty good. He's probably a little bit rusty, but still threw pretty good. The first couple innings he was sharp. With the exception of a couple home runs, I thought he threw the ball pretty good. It was basically his first outing of the spring.

Let's be honest, Pedro for five innings is better than no Pedro at all. With the way our bullpen is going to be structured, having a day off Tuesday, it might not be so bad to have him out there for only five innings -- assuming he's healthy and that's the most important thing.

Obviously, when you keep the ball up in this ballpark, you can see the kind of damage they can make. I was cruising for the first two innings and I lost it. That was the game right there.

Obviously, we didn't come out and start well. We did a bad job of making adjustments. We've got to be focused for seven innings to win games.

One of the things is that .... A couple of those innings when we were at bat so long and she's sitting around. ... I told her to go throw. I had to get her up a little bit to keep her arm loose. She did a nice job. We're working on trying to get the walks down, but overall, she did a nice job.

One reason I am looking forward to playing is because of the misconception that the United States is going to take this as an exhibition rather than a competitive tournament, and that could not be further from the truth. If I wanted to just relax I would stay in Spring Training, play my four innings and then go play a round of golf. I want to win this thing.

One thing we're seeing is we're building some depth. We've had 14-15 guys play a bunch of innings and I like what I see.

Potter threw a ton of innings last year, but we've got four, five guys that are pretty good. The consistency has been great because we don't have a No. 1. We haven't had a complete game yet and I don't know if we'll have one all year.

No doubt, our first target would be to pick up the remaining wickets quickly but we are already thinking about the second innings. I think the second day was not too bad for us if you consider our first innings total. But all know that we have a very poor record in second innings.

Nobody wants to miss part of Spring Training. Not only do you have to get your arm in shape, but you have to get a feel for your delivery and feel for your release point and I think that's probably where he felt a little naked heading into the season. He just didn't have the innings the other guys had.

Newman threw pretty well for her first time out. After Jeter threw 18 innings (Monday), we asked Dominique to get us three or four innings. She got us into the fourth and that?s what we wanted from her. She did a nice job.

Right now, it's just working squads because there's so many guys over with the big club. They're getting their at-bats in, getting their innings in. Then, in the last two or three days, we'll do the teams.

My first thought process was just keep it in the yard. Eighteen innings of baseball. That's unbelievable for two teams to go at it like that. It's the best game I've ever been a part of. I just want to keep learning and learning.

My first year in the big leagues, I made $17,000. It was easy to go out and get another $17,000 relief pitcher. I never worried about innings or pitches. I just pitched.

I got some easy outs in some quick innings with some changeups to the lefties, ... Coming back and taking the lead, giving us momentum after the fifth inning, I just started feeling strong and stronger. I felt like my fastball was livelier. The wind stopped pushing so much at my back, which I think made my breaking ball a little bit better because early on I didn't think it was good.

I'd like to sit and talk to him between innings when I'm pitching. It keeps my mind off the game a little. Most of the time, I like to talk not about the game, but something else. The last couple years it was a little hard because Leo wasn't like that. He's really into the game. So I'd talk to whoever sat next to me. We'd talk about anything.

I didn't get the ball down at all today. Eleven hits in six innings proves the point that I wasn't pitching down in the zone. ... When Furcal got the home run in the fifth, it shifted the momentum back to them.

If we can squeeze a few more runs out of the tail and then bowl well first thing in their innings it could be very interesting. That's not a bad total and it could be an even better one if we bowl well tomorrow - it's certainly not the end of the world as far as we're concerned.

I don't know -- that'll all go into the final evaluation. Clean innings would be a big plus. There's something to be said for getting out of them. But when you have men on base, they're going to score sooner or later. He's done a fine job so far.

I don't know what to say. When you don't get innings out of your rotation, it's always going to come back to haunt you. That's been the case the last couple of days.

If we have a lead in the seventh inning and you're throwing him two innings and Frankie one, we're looking pretty good, ... Everybody knows what Escobar can do, and he's giving guys like myself and Brendan Donnelly some rest. And if you look at what we've done the past few weeks, we're as strong as we've ever been. That's a pretty good thing to have.

If we'd taken our opportunities, things could have been really different. Both guys we put down in the first innings went on to make hundreds.

If they go all the way to the finals, he might be stretched out to two innings while we are trying to stretch him to six, seven innings. That's the biggest concern.

If we can get one good stand then we can take a first innings lead which is important on this pitch.

Let's face it, it's very, very difficult to get our work in. The disappointing thing is that it looked like we were going to get our five innings in.

The plan for the year is to have (senior Jessica) Garvin start off with three or four good innings and have Pettit come in. We need our pitchers to come out and throw as well as they can.

We need better from him. He's capable of better. He knows he should be better. I talked to him a little bit during the game and then again after the game. ... He's capable of better. We've all seen better. He needs to take the momentum from the last two innings and roll that into his next start.

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

Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us.

Maybe with relief pitchers, you need to look at not only how many saves a guy has, but how many innings he pitched getting those saves.

She hasn't pitched in almost two weeks, so I really wanted to give her some innings out there, and I think she did a good job. One play here or there, and she's still in it.

She got a ball to drive and she didn't miss it. Our offense comes in spurts, we did nothing for the first three innings and then exploded.

We had been walked off the last two days, so it was good that we stretched the game to extra innings and pulled it out. It was a good win for us, especially starting a new month and being back at home. Definitely the kind of game that can get you started in the right direction.

Whenever you have to make a spot start, it takes you anywhere from three to five days to recover. And we're just not getting enough innings out of our starters.

Simon Jones bowled exceptionally well in the first innings, so after losing him, the bowlers in the second innings deserve a lot of credit, ... They kept running in on a placid wicket that was really very slow. We had to use all our resources to whittle out those ten wickets and restrict them to a total where we only had to chase 130.

Shock. It was shock. You almost feel you have three or four innings to play, but you go home. . . . We feel baseball is best in the U.S. and it's difficult not to carry that out.

She's amazing. She has the maturity, the physical ability and she's a clutch player. It was hard for her when simple errors hurt and she's doing her best. The last three innings were a big mental game for her but she pulled out of it.

She's been hurt, and this is the first seven-inning game she's pitched in a month. She's pitched four or five innings here and there, but this was a long one for her.

She's had some excellent outings, and she's had some not-so-good outings. Unfortunately, we have to put her in there, and she's getting more innings than I would have originally planned.

We were counting on 200 innings from Brian this year.

We won't be able to use a couple guys tomorrow that we had planned on using (Tuesday). That just gives someone else an opportunity. We'll mix and match and try to get the nine innings in.

Hank pitched really well. He came in and gave us some solid innings and got the win.

Kevin made good pitches when he had to, but it took a lot out of him. It was a tribute to him that he was able to get through it for five innings and give us a chance there.

Jacob Green came in and absolutely shut them down. He did a really nice job, gave them absolutely zero opportunities in the last three innings of that game.

Jamaica actually fought well in this innings but they gave it away in the first innings when their wickets fell so cheaply.

Guys have to look for more pitches and I'm throwing a lot more strikes than I ever have. I just want to throw a lot of innings and show them I can get guys out and see what they want to do with me.

Guzman was up in the strike zone the first two innings way too much and paid for it. He settled down after the second inning and really pitched well, the way he needs to, keeping the ball down consistently.

I batted well in both the innings and have played well over the last four-five months. I hope to do well in Pakistan if my present form continues, backed by a bit of luck.

I didn't have any choice because I had a short bullpen. If we tied the game up, and I'm out of pitchers, where I have to hit for them -- I only have five guys. That's why I double-switched, to get the most innings out of the guys pitching without running out of pitchers and running out of position players.

I can't quite believe it. I thought I tried to bowl too fast in the first innings and I relaxed today and just put it in the right place. It was one of those days.

Four innings were good, one inning was bad, one inning was ... whatever,

For Sam Spencer, a senior we don't use a lot who hasn't pitched for a while, to come in and chew up some innings was awesome.

From his point of view as far as I've seen and talked with Shane, he's fine and ready to go. I think he'll be ready either for the second part of this innings or certainly the second innings of England's.

I feel much better when I throw eight innings on 80 pitches than eight innings on 120. I think I'm a more mature pitcher.

I feel like I'm just now getting in a groove, feeling pretty strong. I've got just over 100 innings under me right now and I feel like I'm just about getting things going.

I feel like Wandy's thrown the ball really well the whole year, ... I know he's had a few rough starts, but you can't expect a rookie to come up and give the innings he's given us.

I feel good, and I'm fine. My slider is working, and I have made two mistakes. That's about it. I'm going to get work and the innings in.

I got a little tired after awhile and I made some mistakes. You can't make mistakes against good teams. I feel good about the first three innings but I have a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth because of the fourth and the fifth.

I don't think it should set off alarms. It sends a message that we're trying to get our best pitchers to eat as many innings as possible. That's the message we're sending to our pitchers. We've got to get our guys who are pitching the best to pitch the most.

Giving up four or five runs through five innings with your starter ... that's a lot of runs to give up and expect to win.

If anybody was going to come through with a hit like that, I'm glad it was a senior. A couple of innings prior, Jenna was in a situation where if she'd got a base hit, we would have scored a run, but she didn't. So this was huge.

For two innings I thought I did a pretty good job. I got a little fatigued in the third inning. They were out there swinging, but overall I thought it went pretty good.

I expected a tough game. They're much-improved. For nine batters, we didn't hit the ball. That's three innings you lost.

I expect Harker to pitch that many innings if not more.

I felt pretty good, kind of a strange night. Being wild like that didn't give them any time to lock in on me. Usually five walks in six innings is a problem for me, but I was able to get out of jams. I would have rather given up a hit than all those walks.

Butch came in the last two innings and we saw the old Butch.

I felt better than the last time, which is good. It's still early. You've got to wait and see, rack up some innings, to see if you start feeling better. Who doesn't feel good after five innings (in spring training)?

I felt good before the game, but in the first couple of innings I couldn't find my release point and everything was going high. I had a slow start, but I just had to come back and adjust.

I felt like I was in a groove. Obviously, the four runs did help. It gave me a cushion there. But I really feel that having those innings in Spring Training helped me, and I feel a little bit more at ease this year.

I felt like I started pretty well and probably got worse as the innings went on,

I felt good. This was the first time I went three innings right out of the chute. It's definitely something to build on.

Barry was supposed to go four at-bats, but we had some long innings at night. I just didn't think one more at-bat or one trip to the outfield was going to do that much. He got a good workout.

To compete you need a big score in the first innings and that means a hundred from one of our batsmen. In the last test we got starts, it will be nice if someone can go on and make a big 100 and get us past 400.

To fall behind 2-0 and then come back and score two runs and then again to fall back by four runs, making it 6-2, and tying it up in the bottom of that innings against the guy the caliber of Carpenter is a good feeling. We had a lot of timely hits. Overbay and Billy Hall had big nights. Even Cappy had two big hits to help his cause.

He reminds me of Greg Maddux. He goes out, throws 200-plus innings and throws as quick as he can.

He really understands that he needs command and the ability to throw strikes when he pitches in the latter innings of games. I'm very pleased with the progress he has made in that area this spring.

He really worked the strike zone and mixed up speeds well. He struck out six in the first three innings and four of them were looking. Anytime a pitcher can do that he's doing good things.

We've got to remember that we've got nine innings to play, and anything can happen, especially late in the game. To get those three runs, we had new life in the seventh inning.

When his arm speed comes back, his slider is going to be close to what it used to be, and we saw that (Monday). If he comes in (today) and feels good, we are probably looking at a three-inning game in the rookie league in Arizona on Thursday. After that, we'd like to get him up to four or five innings and think about where we've got to go with him.

He's a great kid. You figure after you saw him once you would be OK, but we saw him for an additional five innings and still had a hard time figuring him out.

He's a big-time player. If you look at last year, in the innings he hit we scored a ton of runs. We're having trouble scoring runs lately.

Here comes this guy who had nine or 10 starts in the major leagues and all of a sudden he's throwing 5 2/3 innings of no-hit ball against one of the best lineups in baseball. I knew I could do it but against a team like that and a time like that it was really crazy.

Henry will probably be our No.1 guy initially because he's most trustworthy. You know you are going to get six innings out of him every time out. And the reason is because he is such a complete pitcher. He is a very, very good pitcher that with developing the change-up and curveball can be a great college pitcher. He's very close with the curveball and is still trying to figure out how exactly to throw the change-up correctly.

What we've seen out of Carlos has been very encouraging. I hate to see somebody who's not a relief pitcher be gone 14 to 17 or 18 days. But if gets some innings and he's impressive, we'll be really aware of what he does.

He's a competitor who pitches deep into ballgames and has been a consistent starter in the American League for the last few years. His innings show that he's been durable and he definitely adds depth to our rotation.

We are feeling pretty good. I think we have done a good job of taking the teams we have needed to beat in five innings thus far.

We told the kids to take some pitches. He had gone seven innings against Pine Forest. We wanted to make him throw some pitches.

We told them they had to be aggressive at the plate and play to win and not just play not to lose. The first couple of innings we put the bat on the ball which gave me hope that eventually something would happen and we would string some together and be able to get some runs across the plate.

I actually realized our potential the weekend before Crane at the Snyder Tournament. We went out of there 1-3 but we were two innings away from being 3-1. I had a pretty good feeling we had a chance to be real good.

He's pitched 18 innings this year and hasn't given up an earned run.

He's pitched a lot of innings in his life and as with any pitcher it's not a perfect shoulder, but it's one we felt was a worthwhile risk. We've got to be smart in the way we use him but when he's right we believe he's one of the best pitchers in baseball.

He's pitched better than that, there's no doubt about it. I think that's really it. Seven innings against the White Sox, I'll take that every time. He's given us all he's got. He deserves more.

How we're going to limit his innings remains to be seen. We can drop him down in the rotation ... when we have days off, we can skip his turn. There's a lot of things we can talk about. We haven't settled on any one strategy; it may be a combination of plans. But the one thing is that we don't want this kid going out there throwing 250 innings.