Lance Berkman Quotations

We're going to have to suck it up and move on. It's not going to be easy.

With the hitters we have, we are a threat to hit homers any time. I told Preston to stop showing me up. It seems like whenever I hit a home run, he gets up and hits one twice as far.

This will probably never happen to him in his career again, giving up home runs in consecutive games. It's one of those freak things.

The pitching has been great on both sides. It's what you expect in the playoffs. When you have a close series like this, it usually comes down to who gets the clutch hits.

Last year, we were probably an Andy Pettitte short of going to the World Series.

Most of the time when you have those 10-run, 12-run games, it means the bottom of your lineup has hit well and driven in a bunch of runs. We've really been getting contributions all up and down the lineup. It's been a good couple of weeks for us.

MLB takes care of it. They're the ones here in force. They've got crew chiefs. They've got all kinds of personnel,

Obviously being 0-2 is not where you want to be. But at the same time, we play well here and we know that if we win a couple games we're right back in it.

If we had had Pettitte last year, we might have won the World Series. He's that important. He's that valuable. To have him healthy this year, even though we kind of subtracted some pieces offensively, I think the addition of Pettitte cancels those out.

If we can get out of here with a split, we'll be in pretty good shape.

I don't feel like I'm on fire, but I'm getting my hits. I still have those at bats when I feel like I'm back in spring training. I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. If I feel like this all year and hit good that's fine.

I don't care how he pitches. He's out there and his mom just passed away. If he pitches great or not, it's not going to matter one bit to anybody in here.

I can go to the outfield or play first, it doesn't matter. It's not a big deal to me.

But as I've gone along, I've realized that hey, one at-bat the guy might completely dominate you, but the next time, he might make a mistake. Don't be overawed by one at-bat. See that those guys are human too, and they are going to make mistakes.

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.

Fortunately we play here, where it was a homer instead of a double.

If we win (the wild card), it's because we have unbelievable starting pitching,

He did what he always does. It's amazing that on a day like this that he was able to focus and perform.

He did what we needed him to do. We absolutely had to have that performance - and he gave it to us.

We expect to win that game 99 times out of 100, but it didn't work out tonight.

He's got something goofy on that fastball. You just can't seem to get a good hit on it.

He's going to be a great player, ... He probably was a secret to the world, but not to us. We've watched him play, and believe he's going to be an All-Star. Once again, he seemed unfazed by big situations.

I almost feel guilty. The physical toll is tremendous. I'm exhausted and I only played nine innings.

I think it's a good position to be in because we'd like to get off to a good start, but if we don't, we know we can battle back from it.

I think we had a chance to win all three games. We just didn't do it. You could point to those situations, but they had a lot of those situations, too.

I was just trying to get a base hit. I don't hit very many of those right-handed, so it was pretty nice to get that one.

People have been saying we have the best schedule for the wild-card race, but I don't know that's true, ... These guys are tough, and we still have to play the game. Anything can happen, and obviously tonight Roger didn't have his best stuff, and they capitalized on it and we weren't able to stay in the game.

Squeeze it tight. Get under it and squeeze it tight.

I think I'll still retire before you will.

I think he didn't have great command on what he's trying to do out there. He's been very tough against us, so it was good to jump on him early.

I'm hoping to do as little as possible. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of rehab and trying to take it easy, not doing as many outfield drills.

Well, I guess the more chances you give yourself, the better chance you've got of actually winning one,

We don't give up, we don't let circumstances bother us. I think we have a group of mentally tough guys. We've experienced a lot of disappointment together and we've come back from that and experienced a lot of great things together.

We have a lot of questions as far as our fourth and fifth guys. It's just an unknown. We may get some great production out of there, but you just don't know at this point.

We've done a nice job at the plate. There's going to be ups and downs and you just have to try to enjoy the times we're swinging the bats well. The last three games we've done a good job competing and putting up runs.

Yeah, they were really excited to see me, ... I came in there and it looked like there were 10 zombies sitting on the couch.

We know it's an important series and they know it's important. A lot of times you can get to a guy before he settles in and gets his good control. A lot of times that's how you beat a good pitcher, get to him early.

We know it's an important series and they know it's important, ... A lot of times, you can get to a guy before he settles in and gets his good control. A lot of times, that's how you beat a good pitcher, get to him early.

We know it's a big series, and they know it's a big series. A lot of times you can get to a guy before he settles in. A lot of times that's the only way to beat a good pitcher.

To win the series we obviously had to win at least one game here. It was big for our confidence, not having won one here last year, to pick up this victory. But that doesn't mean we're going to sweep them when we go home. They're a tough team. This is going to be a long series. I think it's going to go six or seven games. Hopefully we'll come out on top.

You have to be patient, ... He makes a lot of good pitches and doesn't make many mistakes, and when he does make a mistake, you have to capitalize on it. If we get an opportunity to score, we need to do it and not let him off the hook. He's too good for that.

We're the grunts. We just play baseball. Open it. Close it. I don't care.

We've got a logjam out there. We'll see how that plays out. It's an interesting situation.

We've got a logjam out there. We'll see how that plays out.

What are you going to do? Those are the breaks of the game, and you can't control that stuff.

We weren't going to win the rest of them, ... Nobody expected us to go 9-0 over the last nine games. It would have been nice, but these guys are getting paid to play, just like we are. They're a tough team. We certainly have our hands full. We just have to regroup and come back tomorrow.

We miss his bat. There's no doubt about that.

Viz is another guy that I think is great with not only the Latino guys but he's also great for guys like me. Anybody can draw on his wealth of experience. They set a standard for the right way to play the game and the right way to conduct yourself in the clubhouse and on the field. Their example is very important.

To me, it's fun to be in this position, because nobody expected us to do anything, ... We've got two weeks, we're going to play as hard as we can, and we're going to see what happens.

We had some chances and I'm still trying to figure out why I missed that hanging curveball (in a sixth-inning strikeout). The double late in the game was good but that wasn't the story. We should have been ahead before that.

Brad is a great closer, and we wouldn't have been here without him.

There's not another starting rotation that measures up to ours. And then you get to the back part of the game, with (Brad) Lidge. That's who we are. We don't outslug teams; we outpitch them.

There's nothing that's going to take away the hurt. Nothing can take it away from any of us. We all feel for him. There's nothing you can say, but we love him.

I've never played in that ballpark. It's going to be fun.

The steroid issue is not quite as big an issue as some people think. This is a hot-button issue now. People are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Probably one of the best double plays I've seen in my life, ... I thought, 'There's no way we're going to be able to turn this.' I actually thought he might try to throw it home. He pivoted and threw it to second, and I thought, 'Oh, man, I better cover first just in case.' Sure enough, it was a perfect relay.

Devastating. We were going to the World Series.

As far as who has the edge, it's probably a break-even deal. I think both teams are equally qualified to play in these games.

That's what we're supposed to do and it's good when we can do it. It's not going to happen like that all the time. We're going to have our bad spells, but I think when you can put good hitters, back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the lineup, any two of us can do what we've done the last couple of nights.

You're talking about two Cy Young-caliber pitchers. That's about as good as it gets from a fan standpoint, not so good if you're hitting against either one of them.

You're talking about two Cy Young-caliber pitchers, ... That's about as good as it gets from a fan standpoint, not so good if you're hitting against either one of them.

This is probably the result of coming back too soon last year. I'm sure that I'm not going to be going full bore at the start (of camp). I'll be working my way back into it.

They run a classy organization over there. We have a lot of respect for them.

They have a good offense, but their pitching is better than prognosticators think. They've got some guys over there that can pitch, and they can run such a good offense at you. I'm not terribly surprised they got off to a good start.

There's a little more margin for error this year. Last year, it felt like we had to win every game. That wasn't a lot of fun.

Absolutely. Something around 30 home runs and 90-100 RBIs. I know the guy too well. I saw how he was swinging the bat at the end of last season. It was free and easy. He's going to be a huge part of our offense.

It was devastating. We thought we were going to the World Series. We were there. Obviously, it was a high to a low, and it wasn't much fun.

It's a combination of things. We just haven't been able to come up with the big hit or the big pitch when we needed it.

It's a good place to hit, there's no doubt about that. I don't make too much of those kinds of things, but it's certainly a ballpark that is more favorable for the hitters.

It's one of those anomalies. I couldn't tell you what's going on.

It just goes to show you that anybody can have an off night. He is just a great performer, and you expect him to throw well. At the same time, he's a human being, too.

It makes a tremendous difference when you have three top-of-the-line starters you can run at a team like the Cardinals.

It may not be intense in the stands, but it's intense on the field. It's not a rivalry of hatred. It's a rivalry of mutual respect. We enjoy competing against these guys.

It's a very high honor, ... I remember when I was being recruited to go there and they take you through the hall of honor and see all the guys' pictures and stuff. It doesn't even cross your mind then that one day you'll have your picture up there.

It's good we still control our own fate, but we've got to take care of business tomorrow.

It's unbelievable, I can't even describe it. To be a big part of bringing the World Series the first World Series ever to Houston is just tremendous.

That's really as good as I can hit that pitch, and the guy's standing on top of first base,

Everybody wants to talk about the hitters being juiced. Nobody even really thinks about the pitchers. Before, they were throwing 95 mph, but now they're throwing 90. It's going to be a whole different feel.

The better team won last year. They outplayed us. But if we had Andy last year, I think it would be a different story.

It's definitely moved up my list of least favorite ballparks to hit in.

It's definitely a more even series than a 100-win team against an 89-win team. A big part of their second half was spent just trying not to get hurt. They weren't playing for anything. They had such a big lead. I expect them to be different than the last time we saw them.

It's definitely a more even series than a 100-win team against an 89-win team, ... A big part of their second half was spent just trying not to get hurt. They weren't playing for anything. They had such a big lead. I expect them to be different than the last time we saw them.

It's was their night. They kept giving themselves chances to score, but a lot of hits were not exactly tattooed. There were seeing-eye grounders and a jam shot and that sort of thing, but give those guys a lot of credit.

The thing is, people here should be rooting for him. He makes us a lot better.

It's night and day. We have very few of the same personnel. We don't have too many established guys, but I think we've got guys that are gritty and compete well with the bat.

It's really unbelievable. What can you possibly say about it? We're not that bad a team. We don't have that bad an offense. It just seems like every time Roger pitches, the other guy elevates his game. You get the other pitcher's best game of the season -- if not their career -- on that night. I've never seen anything like it.

I knew I hit it good, but I wasn't thinking home run. The whole time I was wondering if it was going to be fair or foul. I kind of watched and at the last minute it straightened out and died in the corner. The guy reached his glove out and caught it, and I knew they were going to call it at least a double.

I'm not sure that's the case. He may have been caught up in the moment.

I love that guy. He's like my big brother in the game. People have trouble understanding what he means to people in this locker room. His impact is huge.

I haven't really run on it very much. I have to get my legs back under me. When you go to swinging the bat, that's a different deal because you turn (on the knee). There's some things I want to make sure I'm solid doing in my own mind before I got out there in a game situation.

but I finally got around on one in the sixth that felt good.

He's really been an underrated part of this team. Swinging the bat, not just in the playoffs, you can see and tell the way he goes about his business, the way he has at-bats, he's going to be a great player.

I don't think Major League Baseball should have the right to tell us about the roof. They're trying to take the home-field advantage from us. I don't think that's right.

He's tremendous. The thing that makes him so good is he can sit over there for a week with almost no activity, and when you call upon him, he's always ready to go.

He's always tough, and he's a 20-game winner for a reason. He's a good pitcher. I don't think he had his best stuff tonight, but he had good enough stuff to win.

He's not a guy who's going to give you a lot of different looks, ... When you go up there, you know pretty much what you're going to get. He's got something goofy on that fastball. You just can't seem to get a good hit on it.

He's not a guy who's going to give you a lot of different looks,

He's not the only great pitcher on that staff. But we've got great pitching, too. We've got Roy ready to go, and he's been outstanding all year long. It's still up to us to get this done.

They were chanting my name, but I don't know why. My name is on the back of my uniform. So, it's nice to know they can read.

Theres a little more margin for error this year. Last year, it felt like we had to win every game. That wasnt a lot of fun.