You have to have that type of balance. You got a 25-man team and every man has to go out there and do his job. That's what happened in that (seventh) inning. Now, we've got talented, experienced veteran leadership in Carlos (Lee) and (Geoff) Jenkins, Ben Sheets. We've got the young kids learning and playing hard, too. It's a nice blend to have.

Everybody has to pick up the slack with Ben out. All the guys have to chip in and help out.

Ben (Sheets) threw well, Doug Davis, Chris Capuano, I was pleased with all of our starters. It was a good day.

Ben would have made the team if he had been completely healthy. But it was in his best interest not to push it, so he'd be ready opening day.

You can always tell how Ben is feeling by his personality.

They got a great performance out of Arroyo. He was very sharp and stayed on the attack. Ben was good tonight but Arroyo matched him pitch for pitch.

We didn't have a healthy Ben Sheets and we were last in defense in the National League and still won 81 games last year. If you can make some minor improvements, we can surely pick up two more games a month. Two more games a month puts you in the 90- to 93-win range. Can we pick up two more games a month and do what we did last year? I've got to think that we can.

How could it hurt him? We knew Ben would probably get knocked around a little bit, but that he would be strong enough that he would be able to handle it.