(Batista) was missing with his cutter to the outer half (of the plate) and I thought that it was a good time to throw a fastball. He has so many good pitches and his ball has such life that we ended up getting the result we were looking for.

I don't think we're going to be satisfied with being a .500 ball club. Obviously we're not going to end up 20 or 30 games above, like a good team really would. There's still a chance that we could be in it right up to the end and there's a chance that if we're not, we could play spoiler. We all know we're better than a .500 club.

He moves the ball around the plate a lot and he's very deceptive. He's got four pitches he can throw any place in the count.

I thought overall he was pretty darn good today. He really showed a lot of character after giving up three in the first inning to keep us in that ball game.

To me, your closer needs to be able to throw the ball over the plate regardless of what he is throwing, ... If you don't have pinpoint command you need to have an out pitch, a swing and miss pitch.

We weren't going to give them anything to pull, and they both put good swings on the ball and hit opposite-field home runs,

It's uncanny, isn't it. It does seem to be, especially in this ball park. Most of the close calls go to the home side. Based on his (Rodriguez) reaction to that pitch, and also I'm looking around on the field at the base runners, I think everybody in the ball park thought it was Strike 3 except the umpire.