Phil Garner

I think it's going to be difficult because (Clemens) will probably win the rest of the games this year (and) that's going to tighten it up,

It was supposed to be a pitching series. It wasn't that at all it was very much an offensive series. You just don't know what to expect sometimes. So, it wouldn't surprise me if we see a bunch of 2-1, 3-2 ballgames. Nor would it surprise me to see a couple of eight- or nine-run games.

We have to break out. We have to score some runs. Our pitchers have been giving us good enough games. We have to buckle down.

When you have 7, 8 and 9-inning guys, you tend to pitch them in such crucial points, ... When they give up a run, it usually hurts, but you can't go three months without giving up a run. Wheeler goes big stretches without giving up anything.

We'd cut him the same slack we do everybody else. You have to give him three outings before you really take a look at him. He's been throwing some, so you'll probably give him two outings here.

I feel like he's swinging the bat well. I don't want to see him out there at the plate, have three at-bats and maybe be a little tender and maybe do something a little different. We'll give him one more day and hopefully he'll be 100 percent.

Munson had a nice spring training. If he continues to swing the bat like he's been doing in spring training and give us a threat, then that's a good thing.

That was a big ballgame. Roy (Oswalt) hung tough for us, and Baggy came up real big. Emotionally and physically to give us a win like that, that was really good.

We're not talking about chopped liver here. Yeah, he had surgery and he's not swung the bat like we know Bagwell has in the past, which is with power. But he's still a guy that's going to give you a great at-bat, and he can get you a great at-bat when the game's on the line.

He bent a little bit, ... but he certainly didn't break and he didn't give in.

I like to see players achieve personal goals, because I think it's important,

He just didn't locate like we're accustomed to seeing him locate. But I think that will be forthcoming. It was good for Andy to bounce back after his last outing.

So that felt good when he did that, obviously. I think that took a little bit of pressure off everybody. It made Morgan feel a little better. Of course, it might have led to the three-run homer. Who knows

Gallo's been lights out, he's been good. We fought hard in the game. We seemed to have some other opportunities. ... We just couldn't break through until Orlando came up with the big hit for us. Normally, when we got to that point of the game, it's pretty solid. I felt pretty good at that point.

I was happy to see the way he threw. We did not see that at all in spring, but from the first pitch I knew he was feeling good.

Roy is on the slight side and he's lean, but very strong, very strong, and a very good athlete.

Wagner's tough. We all know how good he is. We just buckled down.

To this point it's probably a good thing he hasn't had to do that. To what extent he could do it if he had to throw, I don't know.

I don't think he was as sharp as he's going to be, but for pitching against a team that hits the ball well, he battled through it. He did a good job of changing things.

We've struggled so much in getting the runner in from third with less than two outs, so it obviously felt good doing that. I think it took the pressure off everybody. Might have led to the three-run homer, too.

We missed some pitches that we should have hit, and we expanded the (strike) zone sometimes when we probably shouldn't have. But the bottom line is they did a pretty good job of pitching against us.

Our at-bats aren't very good, ... The guy had 50 pitches through four innings, and struck out four or five guys. We're just not having good at-bats.

You've got to tip your hat to David Eckstein. He plays the game as hard as you can play it. On the other side, you don't like him because he really gets in your hair, but you appreciate what he does.

We've just got this demon hanging over our head, and it's a zero.

That was a great at-bat. You never know if that has anything to do with the next guy, but when a guy makes a bunch of pitches on you, and he nubs the ball to shortstop and he beats it out, I think it takes something out of you. You've got to applaud Willy for hanging tough in that at-bat.