Brian Giles Quotations

We're slowly closing this thing out, but it hasn't been easy,

With my toe tap, I need the at-bats to get ready. It's a timing thing.

We're just playing better right now. When things are going well, that's how it works out, most of the time.

We knew what Jake was going through even before he took the hill for us,

Olivo is a big-time player. The last two days were tough on everyone. For a catcher working both games, I can't imagine. These conditions were tougher than in New York earlier this summer.

Obviously we're going to be able to cover more ground this year. And the more you play together gives you a better understanding of each other. Understanding develops as you play.

I grew up in San Diego watching Dave Winfield, ... In '95, when I got called up, there he was -- my teammate. That was a pretty big thrill.

I had it, ... My wrist was over the wall. When my glove hit the top of the wall, it popped out. When it snapped back is when it popped out.

I had it in the palm of my glove, ... but my wrist hit the top of the fence and knocked it out.

He got a pitch out over the plate -- probably a mistake -- and I hit it on a line. Hit it high here, and it's not going to go.

He made some mistakes. Like we talked earlier today, he doesn't make too many of them, and when he does, we have to try to get some production from his mistakes, and we had some big at-bats tonight.

We're one pitch away from being swept -- that's a big two-game swing,

We've got to put pressure on them, ... They're still three down. I like our chances.

Hoffman just made a mistake and put something over the plate I could hit,

He was slowing down to the plate the later he got in the count, and with that high leg kick, you take a chance, ... You have to in this park. It's tough to score runs here, so you have to be aggressive on the bases.

He'll be a presence. They're still not going to pitch to him, even though he hasn't played all year. But he's going to get on base. Any time you get on base, you're a threat to score a run.

Jake's the kind of competitor who knows every time he takes the ball that he's going to win a baseball game for his team, ... When he's pitching, one or two runs could win you a baseball game. Not everybody brings that to the table.

It balloons up a little bit, ... There's enough mobility to play. It'd be nice if you got to hit home runs and didn't run the bases.

I think we have a good core here and if we add a couple of pieces here and there, I think we'll be right back in it.

It gives us some new energy. We were looking forward to breaking camp with him, and it was a bummer when he got hurt.

Just get in. Just get in, and the postseason starts a new season. We get hot, who knows what happens? You throw out 100-win seasons come October.

Pedro was tough. He was throwing as well as I've seen him. He mixes it up so well, he makes it tough to get comfortable up there against him.

Right there, that's a big play. We can bust that up and still have the bases loaded with one out, we have a chance to win that baseball game.

Patterson had a good breaking ball. He was either tough or we weren't very good. He was all right.

My time is running out and I want to win. They have a lot of good young players over there.

I woke up this morning and I wasn't as stiff as I thought I was going to be. That's when I decided, 'Hey, shoot, let's see if we can't get in there tonight.

Whoever opens up against us, if we get there, is going to have a lot of pressure on them because our record is not going to be as good as some of the other records.

When the competition is great, you kind of feed off that. Definitely with Barry and Moises (Alou) and the professionals they have, you have to get up for them. If not, they're going to knock you around the park.

We haven't gotten to see a full season from Khalil Greene. I'm curious to see what kind of numbers he would throw up if he is healthy for a full season. He's got some of the quickest hands you'll see as a hitter and on defense he has some of the softest hands.

We pitched extremely well throughout this trip. We had one bad start; that's about it.

Why don't you ask him if it'll be special to play next to me?

When you haven't been a free agent, it's intriguing, a new experience. It's not something I've been through before. I've always had a contract.

We've just played inconsistent baseball lately. We have to create more scoring opportunities for ourselves.

This was a really big game for us. I was just glad coach (Ben Waddle) gave me the ball and let me throw. I just let my defense do the work.

You hit one of their big guys, they're going to go after one of our guys. It's kind of an unwritten rule in baseball. Obviously, you don't want to get hit, but we've been able to put up big innings both times it's happened.

We've put pressure on that team, we just haven't come up with the big hit yet. We're playing for our lives now.

You get to the postseason, and it's a new season. That's how we're going to approach it. We thought all along that we've been the best team in the West. We'll take our chances come Oct. 4.

You get to the postseason, and it's a new season, ... That's how we're going to approach it. We thought all along that we've been the best team in the West. We'll take our chances come Oct. 4.

You dream of this stuff as a kid. Obviously this is one step. Our goal is to be world champions, and we expect nothing less. We're going to go out there and battle. I think one thing this team has shown is it has a lot of character. You don't lose main pieces to your offense and still have a four-, five-, six-game lead pretty much the whole year.

(The sweep) was disappointing, but only because we know we can play better baseball than that.

The thing that amazes me most is he's only 24 years old. You don't have that makeup too often at that young an age. For him to go out and do what he did says a lot about him.

I've always admired the way he plays. He'll help us defensively and give us some right-handed power. I'm excited about playing with Mike.

You're not going to feel 100 percent too often. For me, I feel if I'm 80 percent, I'm going to help out and not hurt the team.

They smell blood and they went after it. We knew we had to play perfect baseball and we ended up making too many mistakes in this series. You can't give up all those runs so early, especially in a playoff baseball game.

The replays showed it was close to being a homer and I just dropped it.

This is what you play for, to get to the postseason. If you can't get excited with 14 games to go and a 5 1/2-game lead, you've got problems. We've got two weeks left. We've got to grind it out. We control our destiny.

It seems that every win at this time of the season is big. When you're getting close to the end, you can kind of smell it. Today we played kind of weird baseball, but we got a great pitching performance from Pedro. And in a one-run game, anything can happen.

It says a lot about him. This year hasn't worked out for Sean the way he wanted it to, but he's not going to give in. He came out and prepared himself. Depending on how it pans out, it might be the biggest win so far.

It's a huge win, hopefully it does turn things around for us. It's good for us to just win a game. We have struggled at home.

It's all about pitching and defense in the playoffs,

That's OK. Just as long as they don't spill any of the beer.

Eddie helped me out in keeping on the same plane,

It's definitely frustrating. We're not hitting the ball at all. It's tough to be as pathetic offensively as we've been.

It's a new season. You've seen a lot of wild-card teams get to the World Series -- and win it. . . . I'll take our chances with our team here.

It was a game we needed to win. We're not giving up. That's all you can ask for.

It's weird how things worked. It's nice to respond after what happened.

I want to be out there every day. You can count on one hand how many times you're 100 percent when you're playing every day. I'll take my time off when we accomplish what we want to accomplish.

They were one strike away from a sweep. You never know what that can do to a team.

I'm not a rah-rah guy -- I just go out and try to do things the right way, ... Hopefully, it rubs off and people respect that. Hopefully, I have the respect of my peers for the way I play the game.

I'm close to really getting in a groove. It's such a hard game. You've got to grind it out every day. Hopefully, we can rattle some things off now.

If you're in October, not at all. I don't care. It's a new season in October. Throw your records out the door, and it's about winning series.

If you know the game, you know that's part of it.

If you know how the game's played and what it's about,

I know a lot of people are talking about our record. But I'm proud of what we've done. I think we've accomplished a lot. It's awesome. People counted us out every week and here we still are.

I played well. It's nice to play well. I wasn't aware of it (the cycle) until somebody in the stands told me. Then I tried to go deep. We've had different guys every night step up. Right now it's a lot of fun for us.

He's so popular that if he hits a home run and we congratulate him, fans are mad if we hit him too hard on the helmet.

He started off really hot and has confidence. That's what this game's about. He has so much confidence out there, I think every fifth day he expects to win. Maybe you couldn't say that a year ago.

Hopefully, it's a day to day thing and I will be right back out there.

These games are tough to judge because we're trying not to look ahead to Tuesday, but you kind of get that feeling.

The guy's going to the Hall of Fame, ... It meant a lot to have him out there. It's only fitting he got the last three outs. Trevor Hoffman's done a great job of keeping us together. It's a special moment.