Aaron Nieckula
Aaron Nieckula
ahead ball behind fell guy kept saw worked
Shields kept the ball up, out over the plate, fell behind guys. That's crucial. Their guy worked ahead and you saw what happened. Our guy fell behind. It just wasn't his day. We'll see how he rebounds.
anytime control great hard hitter jason learn needs trying works
That's like a hitter trying to get his first hit. Anytime you get that first something off your back, it relieves the pressure. Jason has outstanding stuff. All he needs now is to learn how to control that fastball. But, he'll get it down (because) he works hard and has a great attitude.
middle pitch work
Going out there I think he was at 76 pitches. I told him he was one over 75, we'll take him up to 80. I told him to work the middle and pitch to contact.
bad decent five four gave given kept outing worked
If he could have given us five innings, that would have been great. He gave us four decent innings. I thought he competed. I thought he worked hard. I thought he kept his composure. Not too bad for his first outing this year.
base error knock last men via walk
We got men on base, via walk or an error or the base knock that last inning. We just couldn't do anything with it.
bullpen chance coming door good held job offense whether
Really from Day 1, the bullpen has done a good job of coming in, whether we're up or we're down, and they've held the door to give our offense a chance to score.
ask ball came chance giving ronnie score threw
Ronnie came in and threw the ball pretty well ... you can't ask for anything better than giving us a chance to win. Unfortunately we didn't score any runs.
ballpark baseball doubles eight extra goes guys hit savvy score team timely wanting willing
We've got some team speed. We've got guys with baseball savvy out there that are willing and wanting to take the extra base. It just goes to show that you don't need to hit the ball out of the ballpark or hit doubles and triples to score runs. We scored eight runs. It's timely hitting.
ball hopefully lifted monkey open sure
That was nice. I said, 'You want us to get that ball for you?' I'm sure the monkey is lifted off his back. Hopefully this will open up the floodgates for him.
excited experience nice road
I think they're excited to get out on the road and experience some of the other ballparks and cities. It's nice to get out and experience the road a little bit.
good pitching
On paper, we have a pretty good pitching staff.
game rattled taking
(McCormick) never got rattled out there ... I'm not taking anything away from our hitters, but we couldn't make the adjustments, which is what this game is all about.
chemistry
Expectations are high. There is a lot of chemistry with this staff, and that's very important.
games high men nice ride
It's nice to ride high after the first two games of the season, now let's see, after a loss, how these young men respond.