Ron Gardenhire Quotations

We're in a pennant race here, ... We're doing everything we can to win. And five runs in two innings, we can't do that.

We're not going to mess with it. He's pitched enough.

Whether the general manager believes that he can help me out of my pen, I haven't asked yet. That was impressive to me to watch him come right at the hitters with a nice angle to the ball.

We're going to do whatever we can to try to win games. So pride can go out the window.

When we get men into scoring position or on base, it's like we go into defensive mode instead of offensive mode. I don't know how to get guys out of it.

What he should do is call me. Not you.

We're doing fine. I'm not going to start messing around with guys' brains. In time, he'll hit cleanup. We've said that before.

(We're) facing a hot team that's got everything going for them. And we're not really locating the ball as good as we can. That's what it comes down to.

We're getting down to a few numbers where we can work it a little easier and not try to get everyone in. We want to start stretching out our players and take a good look at some of these guys that are battling each other and battling for positions on this team.

We're battling, and we got some big hits. Our fans saw a pretty fired-up bunch of guys out there today.

Three runs in seven innings, that's pretty good pitching, really. He pitched his tail off. Hernandez just pitched better. We didn't swing the bats well tonight. We hit a few balls hard. He definitely shut us down. It was a disappointing night for us.

We knocked the fire out of the ball. The guys swung the bats pretty good, and that's fun to see.

We knocked the fire out of the ball.

We know what Stew can do, what kind of player he is. We don't have to worry about that. ... We've got people we've got to get a look at, too. He's given us the best he can.

We know how much this means to the White Sox and what kind of race they're in. So we just want to compete as hard as we can and make sure we don't get accused by anybody of laying down.

We know how important this game is to the Sox and everyone else and no one can accuse us of laying down.

We know he's the one guy who's a little bit behind where he would normally be. No excuses. He had good stuff tonight, but he's not exactly perfect right now with his location and as good as we've seen him.

We know he's pitching with a lot of guts right now. As long as he wants the ball, we know he's OK to go out there.

We're starting to get concerned. It's mid-March, and he hasn't been out there yet. We have time, but the time is getting to where he needs to get out there and see some hitters.

When your infielder can't go out and play, you get a little nervous. You start to look around and inventing things on how you could get through it if certain things happen.

When he got in a couple of jams, he made some pitches when he had to. But he pitched, and that's what we've been talking about. It's something that he's learned, to not overthrow, and now he's just pitching.

We were trying to get him to come back into the clubhouse where he was the greatest leader I've ever seen. He wanted to do it.

We'll see where he goes from here. That's the key.

We did everything we could, ... You're in a pennant race. ... We're trying to win. Five runs in two innings -- you can't go with that.

We tried a hit-and-run (twice) last night. We got one of them right. That's better than the year before. I think that was more of a TV malfunction.

We're 17 games in. I'd say that's too early (to be concerned). We still haven't found a groove yet. If we do that, we can compete. If we're 7-10 here and we've got people injured and some people who aren't here, I think we're battling pretty good.

We did our part on the pitching but didn't get it done offensively today. We have to keep playing to see if we can put together some hits and get going.

This winter we talked about getting the clubhouse back. The guys we got are clubhouse people.

We've talked about it. He says he'd like to do more. That would be nice to see.

We needed a win, desperately. We needed to get back and have a better feeling around here, and that's exactly what happened tonight.

We needed a win ? desperately. He's pretty intense right now. No one wants to win more than Johan. That's what he cares most about ? winning.

We need to make sure we're ready for next year for him. We don't want to mess with that thing. He's pitched on it long enough, and tonight he kind of tweaked it again.

We made an effort there at the end. Up until that, it looked ugly.

We made a good stand here against some very good baseball teams. We're .500 against four teams that are all going to be contending for the playoffs. We're standing at .500 here after a tough start, and we've really battled back to get to .500. And you know what, that's not bad.

We're looking at the possibility of getting this thing cleaned up. He's pitched on it long enough. We're not going to mess it up and take a chance.

We're just going to give him the ball like we always have.

Lew is fine wherever you put him. He's going to play like Lew, he's going to hustle, run balls out and hopefully some of his balls will fall in. Last year he wasn't as lucky as he had been the year before. A lot of times hits will go down to being lucky, and this past year he wasn't quite as lucky.

Lew gave it everything he had. It's not like he could've done anything different. We didn't get it. That's just the way it's going.

Last year, we missed too many opportunities. What hurt us more than anything last year was situational hitting, so if we can hit a ground ball to second in some of those situations to get a run in, we're going to be better off for it. That's what we are looking for, a little better situational hitting.

Sending him back out there, that's a little silly to try to do something stupid with a man's career. We haven't done that to him all year, and we weren't going to start today.

So far, we haven't come out swinging like we hoped we would. We just haven't clicked on the ball offensively yet enough to win games.

Omar was probably the most well-respected, popular player they've had here, but Peralta has done a very good job.

Sit him out any longer and you're going to have to send him out on a rehab. We need to get him in the lineup and let him play.

Most of the time you send Rad back out there. But this isn't most of the time any more.

Most of the time you send Brad back out there, but this isn't most of the time. We're going to try to do whatever we have to do to win games.

Most of the time, you'd send (Radke) back out there, but this isn't 'most of the time' anymore.

Maybe we can put some fear in them, They have a single-digit lead (over Cleveland) now, so you know they're starting to feel the effects. And that's half the battle, to see how people handle things.

Means something to me, but you ought to ask some of those people out there,

No one is stepping up. I haven't seen enough to decide that I want somebody out there. I'm just waiting for somebody to step up.

No, no. I just wanted them to get their three or four at-bats early in the game, so I put them both out there. We'll figure it out here soon.

More than likely, ... if that's the route we decide to go.

My goal is to never stop learning and to never quit making adjustments, ... no matter where you are in this game. I'm always trying to make myself better, and I think I did that today.

Now we are trying to get back up there and see if we can get back in the playoffs, so we're chasing them. They chased us for a few years and we're chasing them right now.

Nothing came easy for him today, but he got through it a bit.

People will say we're actually alive and that's not bad.

Poise? I don't think we're talking about poise here. I think we're talking about a 97 mph fastball with a curveball from hell.

I don't have to have a lefty. If one of these guys comes in and proves he can do the job, then good, that's a bonus.

I'd like to know for my lineups what he's going to do. He told me he'd like to stay, but he's also committed to them. That's something I have to stay out of.

I don't know what to tell you. We're going to try to make a decision here about what's best.

I don't know, not until he comes out and takes BP. Whether he gets into this series or not will depend on him. He's pretty sore, that's all I know.

Castro is very good at short. He's very quick up the middle. We've known that forever about him. He's going to prevent some runs. That's what he does best.

Castro is going to catch the ball. You saw that when Castro made a play up the middle near the end of the game, and he made it look easy. Not too many guys can do that.

But as I told you before, we're a little worried about this.

I'm a little biased, but I think he's the best. There's other guys that have better numbers à but to me, it doesn't get much better than Johan in this league. Not much better than him.

If Buck sees him throwing 84 mph on March 6, he's going to have a heart attack. It's an issue, but people have to deal with it. There are going to be pitchers who are notorious for not getting going until right at the end of spring training. Guys aren't going to be locked and loaded; that's almost a guarantee.

I can't see Rad not wanting to go out there.

I don't think we're talking about poise here. I think we're talking about a 97 mph fastball and a curveball from hell.

I don't want our young players to forget where this game's been. It's pretty special, to tell you the truth, to have Harmon Killebrew down here. I know the fans come down from Minnesota to see their heroes, and I know they love that.

He's got velocity and he has a breaking ball, it just didn't work out for him today. He got beat.

He was apologetic and that's all that I cared about. He understood that you have to handle situations a little better, and that's part of the growing up process too. I'm happy with it. I feel better about the whole situation. That's really all that matters.

He was a little out of whack before, but he's not out of whack anymore. This guy is making a case for himself. You get down toward the playoffs, you start looking at who can do it and who can't. It looks like he can do some things.

He was a little out of whack before, but he's not out of whack anymore,

He was breaking a lot of bats early in the game. His cutter was getting in there. He had good stuff tonight. The ball was jumping out of his hand.

He understands that this is what we have to do to get ready for next year.

He was up a little bit, 75 pitches in less than five innings is getting up there. He battled OK, but we had some ugly plays out there.

He says, 'We've just got to get him through the first couple innings,'

He has no strength in it, ... We were hoping that he would be a little better, and he's not.

He had good deception tonight. The ball was going in there pretty good, he made some pitches. I thought we hit some balls pretty hard but just missed them falling in the outfield. But he pitched good enough and mixed it up good enough to beat us.

He hurt his wrist swinging in the world games. We're not for sure where we're at right now. That's part of baseball. He could've gotten hurt here, too.

He had a heck of a night last night. He was running around pretty good. This turf can beat you up, as we know. It's better than the old turf, but it's still tough on your legs.

He doesn't have any issues? Not with the pitchers I was throwing against them.

He got a kick out of it, ... He said, 'Reinsdorf was squirming.'

He feels better about himself. He's confident -- the whole package. And he's playing good. We thought he would bounce back and play well.

He found out over the weekend. It's been a tough few days for him.

He'd start wearing down. He'd tighten up a bit. You could tell.

He gets a little wound up here, no doubt. Hopefully we can calm him down a little tonight.

He gets a little raging bull out there sometimes. He's got to calm down. But we saw everything we expected to and more. To say he's ready for the big leagues, yeah, if we were in absolute need, he'd be fine. But we're not going to rush him.

He gets a little lazy at times on the drills. But he knows what he's doing on the mound. He's a good fielder; he just gets a little sloppy at times. We talked to him about that. He's handled himself very well.

Having guys pull for each other, everyone grabbing an oar, you can have a lot of fun. It's an old T.K. saying, ... 'If everyone grabs an oar and moves his share of water, we'll be OK.' That's what we're after.

He made some pitches after that (triple). That's what he can do very well. He knows how to pitch with men on base.

He looked like he was on a mission. He wasn't going to give us anything.

He needs to go down and get everyday at-bats rather than sit up here on the bench. He's missed a year-plus of baseball. We brought him up here and kept him up awhile to see where he's at. He's doing pretty good after being out a year of baseball.

He missed his spots early, but he started locating a little better near the end.

He might be a little slow on some stuff, going right and left, ... Anything routine, he's going to make.

When he was on the field, he knew what was going on. He was always in the game. ... I had a lot of fun with Denny. I probably knew him as well as anybody.

We've got to play a very good Detroit team, and obviously, we didn't swing the bats very well in the first two games (in Kansas City). So, righting the ship, that comes over a long period of time.

We thought we were ready leaving Spring Training. We were playing very good and swinging the bat good and everybody thought they were where they needed to be.

We thought we had a chance to sweep them, but that's a great team over there. Two out of three I guess we'll have to take.

Guys are trying. Guys are out there playing. You've also got to score some runs, too. Our starters haven't been getting it done. Our offense has to pick them up.

Guys aren't ready to throw every day. Guys aren't ready to throw four or five innings.