It's going well, but I have to keep working hard.

I'd love to get more patient at the plate. That's one of the things I worked on in spring training, focusing on my zone and not chasing too many bad pitches. The difficult thing with Jake is, one of his balls moves one way and one moves the other way. It felt good to have two at-bats like that to start the season.

One ball moves this way, one ball moves that way.

It felt good to have two at-bats like that to start the season and move further along.

He always tells me every time we talk that this is the chance we've been waiting for. This is the year I've got to go out and prove myself. He's telling me things I already know. He just wants to make sure he etches them in my head and I take advantage of this opportunity.

He'd put me on his shoulders and let me try to rob home runs like he did. When you're a kid, you have that energy all the time. You don't realize how long the season is. But Kirby was like us. He was a big kid.