I know there are a lot of people that don't want to hear it, but when I look back on it, stuff-wise, that's every bit as good as I threw the ball last year from a pure physical standpoint, ... Every time I needed to reach back, I felt like I did and had something extra on the ball. I had all four of my pitches. I just didn't pitch well. I'm not used to that. I'm not used to feeling that good and not pitching well. That was kind of odd for me.

I did some things better, ... The first pitch of the game I left the ball out over the middle of the plate, and Manny made a huge play.

Getting kicked around as much as I did, you get tired of it. I'm not trying to hit people. But at the same time, hitters were very comfortable facing me last year, much more so last year than any year in the past, obviously. But there's something you can do about that as a pitcher, and you've got to be proactive in doing it. I feel like my command is good enough that I can throw the ball in off the plate and get people off the plate without hurting people.

(Blanton's) been throwing the ball great. It felt like it was going to be a tight game, and then I gave up two runs in about two minutes before anybody's even sitting in their seats.

The bottom line is that ball should not have hit him. You've got to be able to get out of the way of that pitch.

It's a loss. I can't search for things and try to figure things out at the expense of this ball club. Not now. Not in August. Not with a 2 1/2-game lead. Tonight was a night when I certainly had the stuff to win and just did not execute.

It's power. Power is something that every human being likes to have in some form. You stand up there and you know you're throwing a fastball. The hitter knows you're throwing a fastball, and the fans know, and you still throw the ball by him? Well, it doesn't feel bad.

None of it matters now. It?s over, I?m healthy, and I?m going to get the ball Monday for real.

It's very simple for him right now from a thought-process standpoint. That job is a challenge. He's throwing strikes. He's commanding the ball and he's got dominating stuff. When you can command and have dominating stuff, you can do the things he's doing.