You can't start any better than 4-and-0. Those are huge wins, and they're especially big because we got a sweep on the road against a quality club. The 4-and-0 start helps, but we've got 12 more. We're going to enjoy this one and get up in the morning and start all over again.

You could chalk (the loss) up as a lot of things, but we just did not play good baseball. Why? I don't know. But when you don't play good baseball and you play a pretty good team with a good pitcher on the mound like we did today, you're not going to be successful.

He's not a power pitcher, so he's got to make them put it in play. He started slow with his first two guys, but then he settled in and gave us four solid innings.

He's young and he's strong and he's got a good bat. He's been given an opportunity, and he's taking advantage of it.

He's stinking strong. He's starting to put a better bat on the ball and starting to be more selective at the plate. That's encouraging when a guy's big and strong like that. His strength is in the gaps, he can put one out (in the gaps). If he can learn to wait and trust that he's going to get that pitch to drive, good things will happen.

Before we start playing, (winning a conference title) is a goal. We sit down and that's something all of us want to achieve. It just so happens we're in a position where we can reach that goal. We're still far from it, but it's reachable. And that's a tribute to these guys. They have set some goals and that's one of them and they've put themselves in position to achieve that goal.

If you look at the conference schedule, there's going to be a lot determined here in the next three or four weeks. It's going to be tough but that's the way we want it. We want to earn everything we get. We've got to be ready to play.

If you don't win the first game, you need to come away with the split. We did that and you have to be pleased with that. That was big for us.

I'm proud of them. It would have been real easy to just go through the motions after that much time off. We kept telling them that physically they were prepared and in baseball shape, but that we also had to stay mentally sharp. Tonight, they looked mentally sharp. They came out ready to play.

It?s going to be a special place. And not just for baseball, but because you have that whole row for the athletics complex. We?re going to have these nice new fields, something all the kids can be proud of.