“He's picked me up a couple times this year. I've got one or two wins because of him. Everything he does is 120 percent. He'll run into walls. He'll run through walls. He comes in on balls better than a lot of guys I know. When you have that kind of defense behind you, it makes throwing strikes easier.”
“He takes the heat for us, and that's what everybody says they like about Ozzie. To a certain degree, we have to realize it's us. We're not doing the job for him, and he's taking the blame. We can't allow him to take the blame for everything.”
“Just a fastball in the middle. It was down. I didn't expect him to hit it out, especially to left field. I thought for sure if I was going to get beat, I was going to get beat in, it was away. I'm still amazed that it went out, really.”
“I've been playing professional baseball for 10 years and I've seen everybody do this, and it's exciting for me and my teammates who have battled through thick and thin to finally be a part of it. We struggled for a little bit and for us to pull together at the end here, it's very gratifying for us.”
“We've been [hearing] it all year. We broke camp knowing no one picked us to do very well during the season. We came out of spring being third or fourth in the polls. We were the underdog all year even when we had a 15-game lead. Nobody really considers us contenders, so if we're underdogs during this whole thing, it would just be the same as it was during the year.”
“I've got all my buddies calling and telling me, 'Nice job,' and I didn't do anything. They're all giving me crap, [asking 'Are you going to get into these games?' If we don't pitch, we don't pitch. We'll ride these guys' coattails if we have to.”
