One thing I hear from fans is, ‘My Dad’s got one foot in the grave, and he wants to see the Pirates win ’ I’ve heard that more than anything. That’s our goal.

You know what I’m not going to do I’m not going to tell you every move I’m going to make. This isn’t a reality TV show. Some things are just best left unsaid. I’ll handle the club the way I deem is necessary. They just need to play.

There’s always a sense of pride you take out on the field to play your best every night. Sometimes your best stinks.

I’m easy to please and hard to satisfy.

I'm trying to help him slow himself down a little bit. He was a little bit better (Wednesday) night, but I have an ability to slow him down a little bit more.

Ramirez gave us a big shot in the arm. The one thing about Ramirez is that he just keeps on bringing it. We've seen him throw nothing but strikes this year, and I think he was only behind two hitters, but he was a little all over the zone tonight. He had to throw more pitches, but he battled back.

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

We're not going to laugh at a 5-4 road trip. We've had times in the past we would have given body parts for a 5-4 road trip.

Sometimes a change of scenery can help out with the confidence level. That's as good an outing as you're going to see at this ballpark for as long as it stands here.

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.