He has better stuff than [the Yankees' Mariano] Rivera. With Rivera, you can put the ball in play. With this guy ... that's one of the few guys that when I'm looking for a slider, I can't hit it. That's the best pitch in the league.
I feel pretty good, and we've still got a couple of weeks to get ready. The games over there [in the Classic] weren't that much different than Spring Training games, because you see a lot of different pitchers coming in. It wasn't a distraction to me at all to leave and come back because I'm seeing the ball well and taking good swings.
If you want to be playing in October, you have to win the close ones. We ain't going to win them all. But if we keep playing the way we're playing, we're going to win a lot of them.
They haven't been intimidated. Every time they go to the plate, their confidence is enough that they feel like they belong here. That's great because the only thing that goes against you when you get to the big leagues is fear.
He doesn't want to make any excuses. If he got lit up, he's going to say that he got lit up, and he's not going to say it was because of this or that. That's the way he is.