Phil Garner Pitching Quotations

We are probably a little stronger in the pitching department and probably a little weaker in the offense department. I don't know how that's going to work out.

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.

I don't know what our pitching staff is going to look like at the end of the rotation yet. We're still looking for that seventh guy in the bullpen. I don't know what I'm going to do with our backup catcher's job yet.

But the bottom line is they did a pretty good job of pitching against us.

I felt like Raul has a little more experience with our pitching staff, ... He was in the playoffs last year, and I felt like it was important to go with that experience right now. I do think that Humberto is a big part of our future. This is not a reflection on what he's doing right now. He's doing well; we're very pleased with his progress.

I don't think he was as sharp as he's going to be, but for pitching against a team that hits the ball well, he battled through it. He did a good job of changing things.

He had not been pitching on a consistent basis, ... Even though he had given up only two hits, he had gotten behind a lot of hitters.

What you're expecting from those guys is always pitching in pressure situations,

I think it helped that our offense was aggressive from the start and our pitching has just slammed the door in their faces when we've gotten ahead in this series.

I thought the Cardinals were going to be hard-pressed to duplicate what they did last year and they did duplicate it. We are a different club and we are probably not offensively as potent as we were last year. ... We are probably a little stronger in the pitching department and probably a little weaker in the offense department. I don't know how that's going to work out.

Our pitching has been good. You can't say that enough.

Roger Clemens is pitching the fifth game right now,

Wandy did a super job today and that was huge for us. Our pitching has done a marvelous job the last six games. You have to feel good any time they pitch, but I'd like to see our offense come around a little. The guys are grinding and by me saying this, it'll probably put more pressure on them.

We've played a little bit of small ball, it's just not winning. We're making some bad pitches, and they're not missing them, either. When we make mistakes, they hammer them. ... We've been hurt by the long ball, which is uncharacteristic of our pitching staff.

We missed some pitches that we should have hit, and we expanded the (strike) zone sometimes when we probably shouldn't have. But the bottom line is they did a pretty good job of pitching against us.

Sometimes your offense picks up your pitching, and I do believe that our pitching will pick up our offense more often than it will let us down. Tonight we needed the offense and we had the offense. A win is a win.

This is tough. We got such great pitching from Rocket. We had opportunities but couldn't get them across the board. That's tough.

It was supposed to be a pitching series. It wasn't that at all; it was very much an offensive series. You just don't know what to expect sometimes. So, it wouldn't surprise me if we see a bunch of 2-1, 3-2 ballgames. Nor would it surprise me to see a couple of eight- or nine-run games.

Their pitching is much improved over last year,

Their pitching is much improved. I think the pitching is why they are where they are. Turnbow's been unbelievable. He's got confidence going now. When I first saw him, I thought he was just throwing. Right now, he looks to me he's throwing with confidence.

I just feel if we go to 15 over we'll be in pretty good position. We're playing confidently now. At least we're pitching confidently. I don't know if we're hitting as confidently as I'd like.

I don't know how much of that was their pitching today and how much was we didn't get the bats on the ball,