There was no selfishness. You'd have Robin Ventura oh-for-four with three K's coming in in the eighth inning saying, 'Come on, boys, don't wait for me to carry you.' Just things like that where when he said that, you knew things were OK,

I basically had the best spring of my life. I was brought in and knew who my competition was. And I have confidence in myself to go out and play the game and I did it. I basically did everything I was asked and, obviously, it wasn't enough.

I'm feeling pretty good at the plate. I just wish it would have come in a win. I had quality at-bats and am trying to put something together. I don't believe in too early or too late [for your swing coming around], but just focusing on quality at-bats and everything else will take care of itself.

We keep battling all day. A lot of good things happened.

It got me on the left hand, forearm and ear. All three on one pitch. I have no idea how that happened. It's never happened to me before, not three spots in one at-bat. I've never seen that.

When things are going bad is when you sit back and observe and see how people react. The thing I enjoyed about it is nobody pointed fingers and when you go through a stretch like that, a lot of negativity can creep in and I didn't see that. I liked that, and you don't see that too much.