Frank Robinson Ball Quotations

We felt like every time he took the ball he was going to go nine innings, no matter what. I really admire him for that.

Usually in a game like this you hope for one good shot at a pitcher like Pedro. It wasn't whether they had good at-bats, they just weren't productive even if they hit the ball hard. We had the people you wanted at the plate in the order you wanted and expected to be productive, but we didn't get it.

We have to get people on base. That's what we have to do. We have to get people on base and we have to get the big base hit. We're not doing any of that right now. We also have to start driving the ball to the gaps -- doubles. And we have to start our offense early in the inning rather than waiting for one or two outs. Those are the things we have to do and then things will fall into place. We will score runs. We will have the opportunity to score runs. We will have the opportunity to drive runs in.

He was decent in a couple of spots. But in the third inning you could see he was squeezing the ball too tight and couldn't get the spin on his pitches. I wouldn't call it a bad outing, but a short one.

He is doing the things that we've asked him to do last year and tried to get him to do and he is doing them now and you have to say, it's two games but it's two games in a row he did those things. If he continues to do that, that's what we want from him and that's what we have to have from him if he is going to make this ball club.

He hit the ball so far that I lost sight of it. Everybody is saying that the ball is still going. It was very impressive.

He can steal a run for us here and there, put pressure on the defense, take the extra base and put pressure on the defense. That's what we felt he could bring and that's what we were hoping for him to do if he made the ball club.

Three-and-oh. Throw the ball down the middle of the plate. You think he was swinging there?

Yeah, I can appreciate it. You just make a slight mistake with him and don't get the ball exactly where you want it, he makes you pay.

You have to understand, number one, the guys that are out there, those people are not going to be out there. We didn't catch the ball in the wind, we didn't make good decisions on plays, we didn't execute fundamentally.

You not going to win too many games if you can't keep the ball in ballpark. We are not doing a good job with that, either. It has to get better.

This is a step in the right direction. This sends out a good message to the fans and to the rest of the players that if we feel like a player ... is going to be good for the ball club in the future, we won't be afraid to lock them up.

You don't see too many get up that high. That was a tremendous play. When the ball was hit, I though it was a base hit.

There's a lot of camaraderie on this ball club already. In spring training it's been a good clubhouse. Believing in themselves and playing with excitement, I think that all comes from winning. I think this team has that ability to do that, to come together as a team.

It was probably the best game he's pitched in the last five or six ball games. His knee is getting better each start, and he is getting back to where he normally would be: that is hitting the corners with his pitches and changing speeds.

It's more of a reaction. We need to do something here to get this club going. Are these two moves going to do it? I don't know. But we had to do something. I think it makes us a little better ball club.

It's already out there now. It's just like it happened last year, one guy starts to complain about it, the next guy picks it up a few games later when they hit a ball pretty decent. Then it starts to spread. To say management doesn't care about winning, that's way off base.

It's very encouraging. You certainly can't argue with the results. We were in the ball game.

It's very good to have him agree to play left field. It's very good news for myself and the ball club.

This is kind of what I would say is an amazing streak, but the club doesn't amaze me because they showed early on that they have the desire, the heart and we hung in there in close ball games, but this has been kind of an unbelievable roll that we're on right now and who knows when it's going to end.

If you hit a ball well in this ballpark you can be rewarded. If you don't hit a dynamite ball in this ballpark -- in the big part of this ballpark -- you will not be rewarded. That's just the way this ballpark is. You take a chance when you get out to the bigger part of this ballpark. You take a chance.

I hope that he will take it from there and play the way he's capable of playing. Run the ball out. That's all. I don't think that's asking too much.

I didn't think he was going after the hitters. He was walking himself into trouble. He was one base hit away from the game blowing in our faces. I don't like pitchers throwing balls. You can't defense ball four.

I didn't see the ball come out. I didn't see the replay. I don't want to see it.

He threw the ball well and freely, but he was up with his pitches. He hung a slider. That's going to happen.

He threw strikes, ... He hit the ball around the strike zone. He used all of his pitches today, and he was ahead of the hitters. He made them swing the bat and made pitches to get them out.

He's locked in right now. He's hitting the ball to all fields.

If he's not on the ball club, you may have to carry an extra guy. So he makes a big difference in three different areas: catching, infielder or outfielder and a pitcher. He's going to affect the makeup of this ball club.