Terry Francona Quotes (156 Quotes)

We're doing it now for obvious reasons, rest. We're trying to take whatever happens and make it to our advantage.

He really looked good. It never fails. The one guy that you maybe want to protect a little bit is right in the middle of all the base running.

Before he could get in a rhythm, he was down four runs. He just didn't have command of his pitches.

I haven't even asked him about his ankle. It's a nice relief. He's out there competing, he's strong, he looks really good to me. He had a nice strong outing in Texas and he backs it up with one where I thought he threw the ball better today.

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.

I know the run he has been on and today we found out why. We saw a much more mature pitcher.

I know they didn't have video. I'm not sure what they're going on. So I'm not sure really how to give you a real good comment. It seems like a lot. ... I think it's a bit stiff.

He didn't let them spread it out (after falling behind 5-0). As far as he goes, I think he looked more confident. The velocity of his fastball is fine. Executing it and throwing his other pitches, I thought he got a lot better.

It's hard to compare them. When you don't locate, major league hitters find a way to make you pay for it. I thought he misfired a few times, especially early. That really hurt.

He's going to have to be a little flexible, and we'll work this out. If there's not flexibility on his part, too, we'll probably bump heads a little bit, but we'll make it work.

Anytime you give extra outs, extra opportunities, it is not good. When things don't happen always perfect, we come back and don't let it throw us for a loop.

David's had a tough spring. That doesn't mean he's going to have a tough season. You look at him coming off the mound it's human nature to kind of second guess yourself a little bit. He'll get over it.

I think when he is really good he pounds the strike zone and stays out of the middle of the plate. He always throws strikes, but the balls were catching a lot of the plate.

As the game progressed, he got a little more comfortable. It probably helped that when he got into the flow of the game, the ball started sinking a little bit better, cutting. I thought he did a good job. Five innings and keeping us right in the game is what we needed.

When you dont locate your pitches, major league hitters find a way of making you pay for it. I thought (Schilling) misfired a few times, especially in those first two innings, and that really hurt.

and I'd love you to police yourselves. But if I have to step in, I will.

Last year, some of those guys kind of got their veteran status. They went through the trials and tribulations of a real good year and came up a little bit short, but they're a good, young team. We won't underestimate them.

We're going home. We have a lot of business to tend to, but at home we hope to be a force. We have an important week it'll be fun.

The hard part about that is there's always a chance for a late trade that could change something. But I don't think we'll be in a position with one last outing, where they'll be some pitch-off or something like that.

I don't think we did. I hope they do.

He almost tore my hand off. I don't want to go anywhere near him.

It's hard to win doubleheaders. The idea is to make this into our advantage somehow. Because of the importance of these games, we're going to probably have a lot of guys play 18 innings. Maybe it'll be 20, maybe 22. Who knows Whatever we're asked to do, we'll try to make it to our advantage.

They got a lot of hits, and I think his knee was bothering him a little more than he let on. We got to a point early where you need to get outs and you've lost the ability to match up.

He has a good arm. It gets easier as you get to know guys and get a feel.

It worked out well. We put a nice crooked number up early and we got to stay away from some guys in the pen that we wanted to.

We talked this morning. The best thing to do for me with David is not talk to you guys because if it's going to get messed up in the translation, it's not worth it. If I'm going to have somebody upset at me, I'd rather have it you guys than him. But we're fine. Everything's fine.

If nothing else, I loved the way he treated the players. He gave them a lot of room. He was, what's that word, folksy.

I know the run he's been on. Today we found out why.

Oh, yeah. Because of what he did go through this winter, his showing up a little bit late, but showing up in the right frame of mind, is OK with me. We rely on him so much that if that's what it takes, it's OK with me.

I think he was frustrated, but he understood. He wants to get deep into the game.

We wanted to make sure everybody left in the same shape they came.

From the first to last pitch, I thought we played with an amazing confidence,

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.

I think everything's fine (with Ramirez), but we'll need to check on him in the morning.

He said about the fourth inning, all the sudden it clicked with his fastball command. I'll bet having the run support had something to do with that because he had some room for error. He could go out and be aggressive.

I saw the same Pap that we've always seen. He competes, he makes pitches and he pounds the strike zone. He gave up a couple of hits, but they have the middle of their order coming up and he made quality pitches to quality hitters. We needed it at that point.

I've talked to him two or three times. I know he's really enjoying himself, so whatever those guys need. If they feel the need to get right back in there, we'll do it. If they feel like maybe they need a day or two to separate themselves and take a little blow with all the travel and excitement ... whatever they need.

The hope is that he can play on Thursday, but even if he can't the news is good. He's going to be OK, we've just got to let him settle down.

He wanted to go and have a little catch and get the blood flowing.

I asked him on Thursday if he wanted to make the trip on Friday. He could have stayed back. He wanted to get work against major league pitchers. He spent five hours on a bus to do it.

I think he's handled the situation well. When you're a Rule 5 guy, it's almost to the veteran players like you're on scholarship. Sometimes I think that gets resented a little bit. He's handling himself real well. He was quiet when he first came up, kind of paid the respect to the veterans and then kind of slowly but surely kind of started showing his personality -- he's done a good job with that.

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.

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.

We're going to try to get him to the point -- whether it's a week from now, two weeks from now -- where he can carry that load that he needs to carry. That's how we're going to do it. I think we all agree in our organization that if he's doing what he's supposed to, we're better. So we just got to get him there. That's not the easiest thing in the world because we're not 20 games up. So we'll do the best we can.

That was a long time ago. It's a different team. I've said so many times that last year doesn't matter. What matters to this team is how we bounce back tomorrow.

They had this thing kind of mapped out. I don't think this is a real deviation from the plan. I just think they wanted probably to test him further with better hitters. I don't think he got challenged a lot (in Double-A). They let him go through the order more than once. I think they wanted to have him maybe face a little better competition.

The prognosis is very good. I think four months is when he's allowed to start throwing, give or take. That's the basic diagnosis. I think he's very optimistic about being able to pitch again like he can pitch.

He sat down Saturday with Dr. Thomas Gill, medical personnel and Theo. A decision will be made pretty soon, on what's going to happen. He's got some issues this week. His wife's having a baby. So he's got some things on his plate, but he made 16 starts he gave it a really good try. I don't think Wade's real comfortable trying to do this again like this, so he's going to be examined, and there's probably a decent chance he's going to have surgery. So that's kind of where we're at.

Sunday might be the most important game of the year. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. I have tried like hell to figure out how to stop this rain. I just can't do it. I got here at 1030 this morning and I prepared ... couldn't stop it. I have no frustration over that. What you do is handle things the best way you know how. That's what we'll do.

Our bullpen looks really good.