Joe Girardi Hit Quotations

If it's a discussion every day, it's a discussion every day. If it's a little microphone I throw in his earpiece ... I'll just tell him to hit stand-up doubles, that's all.

He has made the adjustments. He will look bad on a breaking ball and then he will get a hit on a breaking ball.

There is a fine line between being able to control your body and having all that energy. He's learning how to do it. He wants to get a hit so bad that he will do anything it takes. If you told him to stand on his head, he would try it. Sometimes you try to make up for two weeks in one day. It doesn't work that way. You're anxious to get a hit. You're in a hurry to get a hit.

He showed for a month last year that he was a guy who can hit some home runs. If you hit home runs, you obviously are going to put up big numbers. He had 11 in a month -- basically, in 100 at-bats. If you project that out, that would be real nice for any club.

Hanley got the big base hit. It's a situation where you might bunt but I wanted to find out if he could hit to the right side to get him over. He showed me that he could and he set up the two-run inning as opposed to the one-run inning (with the base hit).

Jim is a guy who played a long time in the big leagues. Every day he had to battle to fight for every hit he got. I like that, guys who have battled through adversity.

That downhill plane that hitters are trying to hit is a lot different.

I think he's handling it great. I don't think he is going out of his zone a lot. He's taking what they give him. You see him always hit the ball to the right side, if that's what they're giving him. Very seldom do you see him move his swing. That means to me he is handling it great.

That was the kind of player I had to be. I had to do the little things to win, and they have to do a lot of them. They have to hit and run, they have to steal, they have to squeeze some,

Miguel was begging the opposing team to give them one more inning to hit and see if they could get those two runs, but sorry, you can't do that in the real game.

You kind of have to try to evaluate each guy, what's happening. Some of them are pressing. Some of them are nervous about what's going to happen if they don't get a hit in the at-bat. That's part of being a younger player.

We counted it up. We hit 11 balls on the button. And what did we get, five hits?

It was an ugly game for us. We didn't pitch, we didn't play defense, we didn't hit with runners on. It's difficult to win a game like that.

I used to think that I kept playing to keep my mom alive. There was no joy going to the park and I couldn't figure out why I was playing. You never know when something is going to hit you.

Anytime our shortstops want to drive in three runs in a game, that's fine with me. Andino had a big hit at the end. That three-run lead is a lot different than a two-run lead in that situation. They continue to both play very well.

They didn't hit a lot of balls hard off him. It's a game that's very frustrating at times because you feel like you're so close. ... We're going to learn how to win these games. We were close tonight.

It's a frustrating 1-4 because it could have been 4-1. In the four losses, three of the losses, we were one hit away from winning the game.

It's a huge compliment to him. As he goes on, he will learn how to hit in those situations. When some of our younger hitters get better, they will stop walking Miguel so much and have to pitch to him a little.

It's frustrating to be 1-4 because it could have been 4-1. And that's the frustrating part. It could have been 3-2, 2-3. Three of the losses you're one hit away from winning the game.

I love youth. Youth is fun to watch because you get to see them grow. ... When you see a player for the first time get a base hit in a situation that maybe he hasn't done before, that's pretty exciting.

If I was to get the Tampa job, I'm not inheriting five guys that can hit 30 home runs. I'm inheriting a lot of guys who have to do the little things.