A big game for Sullivan, and a big game for us. Everybody contributed. We played really hard and got a lot of things done.

I told him the beauty to this game is when you do well you don't go up. You stay around until you do lousy and then figure out how to do well again.

That's probably a pitch you'd like to have back. But we made a lot of mistakes in the game that put us in that situation.

That's as good a game you will see here as long as the place stays. That was top-shelf.

His breaking ball was on the plate today. The game against San Diego, he kept missing with it. His command was much better today.

His demeanor, his rhythm, the pace of game -- all of that is what you expect and what you need from your No. 1 starter. That's something he can bring every night, whether his best stuff's with him or not.

His counts got cleaner. He started with an inconsistent command, behind in counts. He got better as the game went on. There's better there, but that's winning without your best stuff early and then tightening up as you go along.

I don't think there was any big talk or meeting. It was the culmination of holding on to a perception. When you get to a point where you pitch, play defense and play smart baseball regularly, when the game gets clean, you win on the road.

He showed us what we needed to see to have confidence in his ability to put him in the game at any time, at any place in the outfield or as part of the lineup.

He made nice strides this spring. He just needs to keep making the strides that he made. There was a point in time last season where we were having trouble throwing the ball around the infield. Now he threw the ball accurately, his release times were quick and efficient. I think he swung the bat efficiently. He's using his off-gap again from both sides. He had a good spring.

We're going to give him a little more time to work his way out of it. He's an important part of the lineup without Todd. . . . He's not trying to pull everything. He's conscious of going to the right side. When he gets hot, he can do major damage.

We have a youthful lineup. They have gone through a stretch where they have collectively come up short driving runs in. Each time it doesn't happen there seems to be more importance or a heightened awareness the next time, an added weight to be fit into place. That's just part of the experience process they have to get through. They have to realize that no matter what happens, we're going to play another game.

Numbers speaking, he made one error the whole time he was at shortstop, which speaks volumes. He handled himself remarkably well. He showed major-league poise.

Nobody's under a magnifying glass. You put somebody under a magnifying glass long enough, you burn them. The guys that didn't pitch well, they know who they are. Through honest self-evaluation, they'll see their location and the adjustments they need to make the next time out. That'll be the critical area to watch.

Nobody here has taken him and put him in a chair and tried to get him wound up so tight that he can't perform by breaking down his mechanics, ... We've kept things as simple as possible for a young left-handed pitcher to go out there and perform. I really believe that, at this point and time in the season, this is one of the more challenging things that's happened to him in his career. This'll be a good barometer of who and what he is.

He has made progress every time he has gone out and played, ... We need to see if he fits with us going into 2006. We're pretty set with (right fielder Brad) Hawpe and (left fielder) Holliday.

He has said the same thing for three outings. I'd like to see him make an adjustment. . . . We have people in Colorado who have seen it, but it's been awhile. If he knows what's wrong, God bless him. Fix it. It's been a long time since Zach Day has pitched well.

When he plants his front foot and really stays behind his swing, he's got a little gap power. How it plays out, time will tell, but he has the ability to hit a ball out of the ballpark.

He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time.

I think by far and away he was way ahead of the pack at the time he went down. But the numbers he has now, they still spell out pretty good in the big scheme of things if you want to dissect numbers and break them down. Everybody else had an opportunity of three months to really put some distance between themselves and him and elevate themselves, but it didn't happen.

Matt has had his ups and downs the last few games. He delivered the big hit for us so this couldn't have come at a better time for him.

I was trying to shake some things up. I knew we'd lost six games in a row. I was going to jingle any time I had a chance to jingle today.

I thought he took a very positive first step. He didn't get outside of himself. In the first inning he was mid-20s in pitches, but he battled. He didn't give up a big inning after that. Any time there was traffic, he held runners well. He made pitches when he had to. He mixed his pitches. He held the left-handers very effectively. A big outing for him and a big win for us.

We had to revisit that from time to time. But by the end of the season, that added more volume to what he did accomplish.

We had our chances, but didn't come through. Now it's time to focus on the Reds.

Every year at this time of the season you tip your hat to them. If you ever get people saying that about your organization you are in good shape.

This will be a very exciting day for him. He's put in as much hard work into becoming a starting opening-day player as anybody that we've ever had. He's had 11 years in the minor leagues and to get this nod at this time in his career has to be very gratifying.

Every year you show up here, you at least have a fraction of hope. This year there's a lot more substance to go with that hope. They know (the division) is open. It's time to make a statement on the field.

It's a big pick-me-up. Some guys showed up big time tonight.

That's a big hit in this ballpark. He's capable of a lot of things and he's finding his own way to contribute. We have one big hit tonight. He had it and it's a four-run swing. He picked us up big time with the bat.

The bond is special between a father, especially relative to his father's age and the time (in his life),

It's Jason's time to take the next step, and sometimes when players can't get to certain places, it's up to a coach to take them there. I want him to know going in that I've got the confidence in him to do that. By giving him the ball Opening Day, I can't make a bigger statement than that.

I'm not sure how much we're going to let him swing the bat. He can be somebody else's laboratory experiment. I've had my time with it. ... I'm working on the premise that he can still hit.

I'm going to give him some time to work out of it.

His hip wasn't a factor. His command was an issue. He basically pitched out of the stretch the entire time he was out there.

He's welcomed the opportunity. There comes a point and time in your career where you do what you are asked to do.

If he stays the course with it, obviously he'd be thrown into the mix. But again, time will tell. Let him play. Let him finish the season the way he's been the last two weeks. Then we'll have a topic of discussion.

We've all put a lot of work in this project. The organization has put a lot of work in. He's put a lot of work in. Coach (Davey) Collins has put a lot of work in. When you put that much work in you want to benefit from it when it clicks.

We're going to give him a little more time to work his way out of it. He's an important part of the lineup without Todd. . . . He's not trying to pull everything. He's conscious of going to the right side. When he gets hot, he can do major damage.

We've seen him in a lot of different uniforms. You hope things work out for him.

Maybe we can give him some things to work on over the winter that will make him a little more fundamentally sound on offense.

One of the areas (Freeman) has had to target and work hard to improve on are (pitches) tight on him and things spinning away from him. Obviously we'd like to get him on base and see if we can get him in motion a little bit.

I don't care who you are, if you get called out publicly, it affects your focus and concentration. You can say it doesn't and you can try your hardest not to let it seep into your work or what you do. But that's something out of his control that also got thrown onto his plate that he needed to deal with.

I had a script but didn't need it. There's no chance for this to work unless his head and heart are in the right place, and they are. He's not a 23-year-old kid pushing the older guy out of the rotation, and he realizes that.

I think the jury is still out on his bat. We'll work more with him and maybe see if there's a little more there. We're not talking about hitting home runs. We want him to be more consistent with the barrel. He's shown some improvement.

I think we've talked about it all -- his humility, his work ethic. He has a unique passion for the game. He leads by example. In the groups that he's been in, that's been talked about.

That was the result of a lot of work the last three weeks, in which (Francis) analyzed what had been happening.

We are a work in progress. These guys had a lot of baggage laid on them last year. We weren't that good last year. There were a lot of young players cutting their teeth, but they also are players who came up together (through the farm system) and had success together. And they want to have more success together.

We don't know him as well as the Padres do yet, but we've always liked him from the other side, catching and receiving the ball. Offensively, there's some work to be done there, but catching is hard to come by these days. Everybody's looking for it right now. We like the depth we have.

We've only won 62 games this year. We've still got a lot of work ahead of us.