“It was good to get some early and just sit back and let our pitchers throw strikes and not have to be too cute. Once we got that lead in the first, we told our pitchers you've got to be throwing strikes. No free passes, let our defense do the work. We only want to throw strikes, no walks at all.”
Steve Ryan
“We felt we needed pitchers who could throw strikes. The two players we sent out were not throwing strikes. Carter admitted he's never had a stretch like this where he couldn't throw strikes.”
Ned Colletti
“One of the biggest things, when you have a pitcher throwing a lot of strikes like that, is to not let him get comfortable throwing strike one. If you let him start to feel like he can just lay it in, lay it in, all of a sudden you're behind.”
David Eckstein
“What he does is throw strikes and mix his pitches up. That's what he does well. Any pitcher that throws strikes and hits the corners keeps you off balance.”
Bengie Molina
“It gives your team a big boost. It not only helps the pitcher throw strikes, it takes pressure off the other guys to not try to do too much. We're rolling now and we have to keep it going.”
Jermaine Dye
“His command of the strike zone is a lot better. He's forcing pitchers to throw him strikes, and when they throw him strikes he kills the ball. No. 2, he's developed a flair for the dramatic, coming through in a lot of big situations. Those are things MVPs are made of.”
Chipper Jones
“If he can pound the strike zone with strikes, he's a big-league pitcher. If he can't, he's not. I can make that (decision) pretty simple. If he throws the ball over the plate, he's a big-league pitcher.”
Jim Leyland
