He's a young guy who works hard. He's not just scraping by in the ninth inning. He's going out there and dominating hitters and people in the stands want to see that in a ninth-inning guy.
Quotes about ninth-inning (4 Quotes)
Years later, I was in Baltimore one day and I talked to (then-manager) Johnny Oates. He said, 'You changed the game. You created the ninth-inning pitcher.' I said, 'It was the managers who did it. They started holding back their best relief pitchers to get saves.'
With his experience and his ability, he could be a seventh-, eighth- or ninth-inning guy. He could be your closer on the days Mo has to have a day off.
We are grooming a young guy to be a ninth-inning pitcher, but I don't think initially we have to throw the guy into the lion's mouth and say, Here, let's do it now. There's a way you go about it, and you give him little bits at a time. When you have a veteran guy like Roberto Hernandez down there, it gives you a chance to mix and match a little bit.