I talked to him the other day, and he said that's the best he's felt. We want to continue on that same progress and not have an interruption of any kind.

We'll figure it out. I don't have a set thing. We'll do what we think is best that day.

We'll mix and match and do what we can. We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. People want to see us win. September is right around the corner. There are probably some guys who will get called up. We'll do the best we can every day.

We'll take it to the end before we make our decision on who's throwing the best and what we need.

We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our fans to put the best team we can on the field to try and win because people want to see us win,

We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. We'll do the best we can every day.

To the best of my knowledge right now, nobody is leaving.

We want to get him in the position to give him the best chance to make the club. He worked hard last winter. We know he can help this club. I can tell he's helping some of the young guys and the veteran guys about how to go about their business and how to play this game.

You'd think he's left-handed when you watch him throw. He's one of the best athletes I've been around. People are surprised when they see him run. This guy can fly.

(Zambrano) struggled early. He made a couple young mistakes. I guess that comes with young players. He started working his breaking ball and had them off-balance. In the sixth and seventh, he probably had his best stuff. Fortunately, we got a couple runs in the top of the seventh. have a couple of guys already in the process of being developed. You just have to choose one that's the best, and...

You spend this many days with the guys here. You live and die with them. You hate to see them go. To the best of my knowledge right now, nobody is leaving unless somebody just makes you an offer you can't refuse. Right now, they're here.

This is the best ball we've played the whole year.

This guy is in great shape -- this is the best shape I've seen him in. Our trainers went down and checked on him. They saw him this winter. He's doing pretty good. He hasn't played baseball for awhile so we still have to break him in slowly.

It's one of the best trades you don't make. Walker made some fine defensive plays tonight. He's hitting the ball outstanding.

You talk to him, and he's in a hurry. We're in a hurry to have him, but we don't want to do anything to set him back. I talked to him the other day, and he said that's the best he's felt after he has thrown. We want to continue on that same progress.

That's the best he's looked so far this spring. It's the right time for him to get it together.

Everybody says, 'Play the kids, play the kids.' But I've got seven games against Houston. Against Houston, I've got to play my best team. We could have a direct impact on who goes. There's always something to play for.

I try to protect the young guys as best I can, but at the same time, if you're in the big leagues, you're in the fire every day no matter who you're playing.

They've got some of the best hitters in the world on that team. We were going to have Carlos throw seven innings or 90 pitches. The 90 pitches came first.

They've got some of the best hitters in the world on that team.

It's rare to see your best player is your best citizen, too. He reminds me a lot of how Hank Aaron used to conduct himself.

I guess competition does bring out the best in everybody.

I'm trying to do something day to day to find out the best lineup. I'd prefer not to change every day.

If you know Carlos, when was the last time you saw Carlos take it easy? This is something out of our hands. The main thing we want to do is make sure he's in the best shape. After he leaves here, he's out of our domain and control except for reports.

I just told him, 'Good luck.' He's going to try to do the best for us and the best for our country.

Hey, you can't pick where you put them. I try to protect my guys the best I can. If you're in the big leagues, you're under fire every day, no matter who you're playing. Haven't I said all spring I was looking for a surprise?

One of the hardest things in this game is a fallen star. When a guy accepts the position that he's in in his career, it makes it easier on a manager and coaches and very beneficial to the guys on the team.

I didn't have any choice because I had a short bullpen. If we tied the game up, and I'm out of pitchers, where I have to hit for them -- I only have five guys. That's why I double-switched, to get the most innings out of the guys pitching without running out of pitchers and running out of position players.

He's just keeping up with (Curt) Schilling. They're both 3-0. His main thing is strike one. When you get strike one, then you can do a lot of things - inside, outside, up and down. The name of the game is control. He was great.

He didn't want to come out of the game. He said he was OK, but they all say they're OK. I don't know how he is, we'll talk to the doctors and go from there.

I talked to him the other day because he was pressing a little bit already. I told him to just relax. It's the same game he played in Venezuela. We have to eliminate the pressures of the amount of people and TV and radio, simplify things and say, 'Hey, man, it's baseball.

It hurts us not to play Friday night games. We got home late Thursday from Puerto Rico and had to play a day game the next day on the 12th. We can get home at 1 o'clock not fall asleep until two and have to be back up at eight while the other team has been here. They are in bed before we even get home.

I was watching a game the other night, and in between the innings, a goat ran across the screen. I thought that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. Or vote 1-800-Which Curse is Stronger, the Goat or the Curse of the Babe. It's crazy.

That was huge tonight, to get back to 2-2. We definitely wanted and needed the game tonight to start the Series all over again. We certainly didn't want to go down 3-1 then have to win three in a row.

We were told he would pitch sometime in that first game -- possibly.

There are going to be some times when all of them will have to come off the bench. To me, that will keep all of them ready to come in the game at any minute.

You get a good setup man and sooner or later someone is going to want him as a closer. You got a good middle guy and you or somebody is going want him to be a setup man. You see bullpen guys move in this game more than any other players.

I've seen some greats leave the game. You never want to see them leave and you'd rather see them leave on their terms and leave on top. It's not over with yet. You don't know if somebody is going to offer Sammy a job here soon or what is going to happen. But Sammy has been one of the great players of the game for a long time and a guy who meant a lot to Chicago and a lot to the game. ... I just hope he gets a job somewhere.

It was a perfect scenario, too -- day game after night game.

They're still going to follow us here. We just kind of messed that game up tonight.

It's a big game. It's a very important game for us.

It's not over with yet. You don't know if somebody is going to offer Sammy a job here soon or what is going to happen. But Sammy has been one of the great players of the game for a long time and a guy who meant a lot to Chicago and a lot to the game. . . . I just hope he gets a job somewhere.

It's the same with pitching. You talk to Greg Maddux and I'm sure he has a game plan, but he also sometimes can feel when a guy is looking inside or if a guy is looking for something else or it depends on which pitch he takes and how he takes it. Some guys get it early, some guys get it late, some guys never get it.

I've got a game plan. Some of it depends on how healthy Todd feels, how his legs feel. He's still recuperating from last year at the end of the year. With the hard ground down here, it puts pressure on your legs.

He started out not very sharp and he had 37 pitches in the first inning. That's almost three innings worth and we were debating whether or not to send him out in the seventh or not but he wanted to pitch and he ended the game strong.

Certain kids stick out, ... And when I saw Adam in spring training, I liked his attitude, his work ethic. He busts his butt.

He's got some skills, definitely. He's got great range, quickness. His bat has really improved over the last year and a half. Fundamental stuff? There's still a few things he needs to work on. He'll probably get a pretty good shot of that here.

He's been working with Tony Gwynn in the winter and you can't find a better guy than that to work with. He works hard, he appears to be an outstanding teammate. I think he'll be an excellent catch for us.

My thing is I've got work to do. I do my job. If we win, everything will take care of itself. That's how I live. If I'm approached, then we'll deal with that. But right now, I can't be worried about that.

You learn the hard way then. We had a long discussion last night. The thing about temperament, which you guys don't believe, but I was very similar. You have to constantly work on it as a person.