30 Quotes by Joe Blanton

When I came up last year, we were battling them for a playoff spot just like we are now. Any time we play each other it's a big series and every game is right down to the last pitch, for the most part.

The (pitch to Rivera) was a fastball in and that's something I need to work on.

He trusts my stuff. He taught me a lot. He calls the pitch that you expect to throw.

He looks like he's getting locked in. The whole team benefits from him being in the lineup. He looks like he's ready to go.

To come in here and win the first game at a place like this is big, ... Hopefully it gets our confidence going and we can carry it over for the rest of the month.

I was trying to get the ball in, and he was reminding me of that. In games, I have been missing over the plate. It was helpful to have him out there for a quick fix right in the middle of things.

That's the way it goes sometimes. Maybe in the Seattle series the ball was going right to the infielders. Maybe in the next series they'll hit line drives right at people. That's the way baseball works.

We were 15 games under .500, and Barry always remained positive. We started bad, and he never gave up. He kept pushing us. He's 27 now, with six years in the big leagues and a Cy Young Award. We didn't want to lose a great teammate.

We had a lot of close games that could have went either way (during April and May). It was one of those where instead of the ball going an inch foul, it went an inch fair.