Phil Garner Game Quotations

We are a different club and we are probably not as offensively as potent as we were last year. We certainly don't have the possibility to break a game open with the long balls like we did last year. We're a little bit younger in our offense, but somehow we found a way. Our pitching is more solid than it was last year from top to bottom. Our bullpen has been good on the balance of the year and having Andy Pettitte healthy has helped our rotation quite a bit. We are probably a little stronger in the pitching department and probably a little weaker in the offense department.

We're in a stretch of a bunch of day games. We don't bounce back as quickly as we used to. At this time of the year, whenever he can have a game off, it helps him a little bit.

We've still got work to do. Tomorrow is our biggest game of the year. Then, the next day will probably be even bigger.

We have to play that last out, and we couldn't get the last out. It's one of the things that makes our game great. As Yogi (Berra) would say, 'It's not over till it's over' and it certainly wasn't over.

No, I don't like the way that game turned out, but we still control our destiny.

If we had won 10 in a row to get a one-game lead right now, I'd be happy as all get-out. No, I don't like the way that game turned out, but we still control our destiny.

I didn't like the way that game turned out, of course not. Still, we control our destiny. We have to play hard, tighten it up a little bit.

I'd like to put on a better show. It's embarrassing to play like this in front of our hometown. It was just not a good game for us tonight.

I feel that we have not seen his best game, although I can see why people are very high on him. He has a great downhill tilt, he looks like when he gets his game together, he can control both sides of the plate. He's down in the zone. I would hope he would go down there and pitch right from the get-go and put a little heat on us up here.

I can't imagine a better game with as much on the line as this game and to have performances on both sides of the field that were as critical and as good as they were. It was unfortunate that somebody had to win or had to lose this game. I'm certainly glad we won.

I can't imagine, ... a better game with as much on the line as this game.

He hustled all the way and made a super play; that might have been the turning point at the game right there.

He came through big. He had one tough inning, but our guys came through for him. Once in a while, you have to have a little help. Roy kept the game at bay early on. We had a tough sixth inning, and then we responded.

I thought we had plenty of runs, we had Roy on the mound and things looked pretty good. Then a few innings later things didn't look so good. It was a game you didn't want to let get away.

I thought Wandy did a super job, ... He must have had some late movement, because he got a lot of ground balls. But he was down in the zone a lot, and in the middle part of the game he went up the zone a little bit.

I think there's going to be a sequel on it; this is going to be the greatest game ever played,

Roger is fine. He's fine. He's ready and able to go. . . . You saw him in the last game in the Division Series and he had his spikes on somewhere in the fifth inning. And if it had taken 10 innings or 20, he would have pitched 10 or 20. That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Roger Clemens is pitching the fifth game right now,

I thought he was going to be able to pitch, but it clearly swelled up on him. I think it was probably a little factor in the game in the way he was trying to work with it.

I thought he might collapse, he's probably in the back right now sick. I told him he couldn't die on the field, he'd have to wait until after the game to die.

We had opportunities, that's what hurts. I just felt like this was going to be a game we were going to win.

Wheeler might have gotten the biggest strikeout of the game on Bay. And Gallo keeps the momentum from turning on their side.

Was that his ninth win? That's pretty good. You've got a guy who didn't figure in your rotation at the start of the year and when he gets in he's won more than he's lost, so that's pretty good. He pitched a nice crisp game tonight. He threw strikes, he gets ahead. That gives a team a lift.

Tomorrow's game is the most important we'll play all season, in case anyone didn't realize that.

We will follow the doctor's orders. Every day, we'll have a game plan that is a medical game plan for him so that we don't expect something from him or put him in a position that he shouldn't be in. We will follow the doctor's orders on this medical rehab, and then we'll see where he goes.

We were fortunate to lose two out of three and not lose any ground . . . (Monday) is the most important game we will play this year.

This will be good for Brandon. He had a good amount of time off. I'm hoping he's healthy, and I think he will be. He needs to go out to pitch like it's the first game of the World Series.

When you look back, there were a couple of points during the game where it could have gotten real close. It turned out OK, but I thought it was going to be real easy.

You've got to tip your hat to David Eckstein. He plays the game as hard as you can play it. On the other side, you don't like him because he really gets in your hair, but you appreciate what he does.

This is going to end up being the greatest game ever played, ... The Greatest Game Ever Played.

You don't want to get down to a position (in which you need Lidge). It's also a game you don't want to let go.

It's almost like we've been playing the last game we're ever going to play since mid-May,

The beautiful thing about our game to manage (is) you learn on the job. We've been through all the experiences. You're not asking the players to do something we ourselves haven't done. He'll draw on those experiences, and I think he'll do quite fine.

I'm proud of these guys, we played hard, ... I'm disappointed and I'm ticked off that we didn't win a game in this World Series, but I'm proud of our players.

I learned that there are some who can play when the game is on the line and some who can't.

I never feel comfortable until the game is over no matter what the score is, but you certainly feel good with Roy on the mound when you have a good lead and you have a fresh bullpen. You feel a lot of things are in your favor but we couldn't get that third strike.

But his value goes way beyond his contribution on the field. No. 1, he's an extremely intelligent player. He knows how the game is supposed to be played, and he imparts that knowledge to other players.

How do you explain that game? That was like a softball game where everyone on the block gets to play.

I don't know how we stayed in the ball game as long as we did.

If he hits a ball hard, you can get him out. If he hits it soft, he'll beat it out every time. He has an incredible burst the last 15 feet or so. There have been six or seven times this season when an umpire will anticipate a little bit and call him out and then realize that he was safe. I got thrown out of a game or two because I got tired of seeing that. I don't know if he's going to win the rookie of the year or not, but there is no doubt he's an exciting player.

He pitched well, of course, the year before. And last year I saw some major improvement in him. I thought he calmed down. I thought he came into the game with a real good game plan. I thought he executed his game plans. To me, he matured a lot last year. He seemed more confident on the mound. He pitched in some big situations and he got some outs in some big situations.