Nobody wants to see a two-run homer, ... But I do like the way he handled himself. That's a lot to ask of this kid, but we're trying to have more weapons. And he's got a lot of them. He just didn't get the ball in far enough.
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He was a little more patient. He swung at some pitches in the strike zone. He?s a strong young man. The ball comes off his bat really well.
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They were actually going to hit on the field, but now they'll go down and hit in the cage, ... [General manager] Theo [Epstein] asked me a few days ago if I had a problem, and I actually thought it was great. I had met Ellsbury, but [I] had not met Lowrie.
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I think he's been looking at his hands pre-pitch and where they are. He did the same thing last year. Out of the gate, you just lose your comfort zone for whatever reason. He'll get it. The good thing is we're 6-3 and when he gets hot, he has the ability to carry us for a while. It's not like he's some young kid and you hope he hits. It's just when is it going to be and how condensed is it going to be?
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Early on, we made it hard on (Wakefield). He made some real good pitches, stranded some runners, gave himself a chance to settle down.
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We also told him that if he can't (pitch in relief) then he won't do it. But I think because of the kind of guy he is, he's shooting for it.
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We have three weeks left. He's certainly not going to throw one inning and then start the season. But we'll get him in games when he and [pitching coach Al Nipper] feel he's ready to do that in a positive way.
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I heard him let out a little yelp. I had a good idea what happened. Either that or Tom Brady had thrown for a touchdown.
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Yeah, he tolerated it pretty well, ... I think the hope is, and again, we might be reaching a little bit, the hope is that he might be available towards the end of the week. If he's available, he's a pretty good hitter. From where I sit, I appreciate him trying.
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When he's really good he pounds the strike zone and stays out of the middle of the plate.
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I'm not too pleased about it. Derek got hit with a split (finger fastball). We knew it, they knew. Then Mike got hit in the ribs.
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I think it's rare where any team goes through a stretch where you have everyone available, everybody's working. And I think he probably fills that role for us, because he can hit anywhere.
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I think he misses enough bats. I don't think that this is going to be an issue. Is his ERA going to be higher? Well, I'll bet you just about everybody's probably is. There's a reason we gave up what we did to get him.
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From his point of view, once we got Wily Mo, this probably was not the best place to be.
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It depends who labeled them. I didn't. They hit the ball out of the ballpark. I was well aware of that.
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It's an awesome concept. I wish there was a perfect way to do it. You're going to see a lot of general managers, managers, organizations hold their breath every time their pitcher steps on the mound.
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I don't take any pleasure in sending people down. It's the way they earn their living. But I try to do it very honestly. I do sit home the night before and definitely think about it because I think they have the right to know what we're talking about and have a good reason for what we're doing.
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I like our team a lot. Today was a bad day followed up by a tough loss last night. I like our team. Again, it's impossible to go through the whole season where you don't hit a [skid]. It's impossible. It happens, it's not fun.
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Last year he learned how to be a major league starter on a real good team. He hit a couple bumps in the road earlier, but he's good.
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That's not fair to him.
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I miss him already. He's a good friend of mine. We really care a lot about him getting healthy. Nip will do a great job professionally.
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Oh yeah, that's huge. That was something we really wanted to stay away from.
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I believe in these guys, and I believe if you stay the course you get paid dividends. I believe it's better.
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Our bullpen looks really good.
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A win is a win, and that's good. That's what we set out to do. It wasn't easy, but it ended up good.
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I was pleased with his demeanor.
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We won 95 games in a season where things didn't go right. I'm not going to apologize for that.
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I'm not sorry to see those guys leave town,
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