Joe Blanton
Joe Blanton
Joseph Matthew Blantonis an American professional pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. He has previously played for the Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Kansas City Royals, and Pittsburgh Pirates...
games last oh quality seven start
Oh ... it's just another game. We still have another (16 games) left. That's when the real important games will be, those last seven of the year. That's when you really need a quality start for your team.
battling came game last playoff series spot time
When I came up last year, we were battling them for a playoff spot just like we are now. Any time we play each other it's a big series and every game is right down to the last pitch, for the most part.
coming good last late leave outing spring start time
It's real nice, especially coming this late in the spring. You always want to have that one good outing right before you leave Spring Training, and this is my last start down here, so it was a good time for it.
along barry clubhouse few guys help last looked rooting sure
I'm sure everyone in the clubhouse was rooting for Barry to be back. We had some young guys last year, and a few of us looked to Barry to help us along the way.
breaks couple giving matter
We're going out and giving it all we have. It's just a matter of a couple breaks here and there.
against anytime definitely great neat pitch somebody watched
I've definitely watched him over the years. It's neat anytime you get to pitch against somebody who has been around for so long and had such great success.
confidence game win
I want a win anytime. It's just big getting the first game in a place like this. Hopefully, it will get our confidence going.
april ball close either games inch instead
We had a lot of close games that could have went either way (during April and May). It was one of those where instead of the ball going an inch foul, it went an inch fair.
ball baseball drives goes hit line maybe next seattle series
That's the way it goes sometimes. Maybe in the Seattle series the ball was going right to the infielders. Maybe in the next series they'll hit line drives right at people. That's the way baseball works.
ball baseball fix helpful middle missing quick reminding trying
I was trying to get the ball in, and he was reminding me of that. In games, I have been missing over the plate. It was helpful to have him out there for a quick fix right in the middle of things.
barry games gave great kept leagues lose pushing remained six
We were 15 games under .500, and Barry always remained positive. We started bad, and he never gave up. He kept pushing us. He's 27 now, with six years in the big leagues and a Cy Young Award. We didn't want to lose a great teammate.
carry confidence game gets hopefully rest win
To come in here and win the first game at a place like this is big, ... Hopefully it gets our confidence going and we can carry it over for the rest of the month.
balls bat catch good inches job pitches speeds three
Three inches here or there and a lot of those balls are caught. Sometimes you catch a break, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the (artificial) turf speeds balls up. I thought I made some pretty good pitches they did a good job of getting the bat on.
fastball work
The (pitch to Rivera) was a fastball in and that's something I need to work on.