Battling in the Central and back to blogging
From that standpoint, I'm sure everybody went to Spring Training relaxed and ready to go to work. We were also fired up about getting off to a hot start because we realized how hard a grind it was for us last year to win the division. I feel like it was so hard to win the divison that it kind of took something out of us in the postseason. We got outplayed and flat out beat three games in a row by Arizona, but I still felt that when we won the division, it was a huge sigh of relief instead of, "This is the first step on the way to winning a championship."
Those back-to-back losses to Milwaukee and St. Louis Thursday and Friday were tough. Every year, you have stretches like this of heart-breaking losses and stuff that you don't expect to happen happens. Every year, you know that coming in, and it still doesn't make it any easier. Everyone's frustrated, everyone wants to do more. From my standpoint, I started the first couple weeks really swinging the bat nice, and these last two or three weeks, it's really tailed off. I put a lot of pressure on myself in this lineup because I feel like you can't always expect Aramis and D-Lee and those guys to do it every day. I feel like if I can contribute -- Fukudome is always on base -- if I can find a way to hit the some balls in the gap, games might be different. I know every guy on the team goes back to their room at night wondering what they could've done to make a bigger impact in the game.
As far as those back to back losses, you put them behind you. We play so many games that it doesn't allow you to harp on the negatives or the positives for long. The game against Milwaukee was tough because it set up so perfect for us, and Friday could've been different. I think Soriano showed why he's got a flair for the dramatic and why so many people enjoy coming to watch him play. The guy's battling to get back out there after sustaining an injury, and he has a little trouble with a few fly balls, and next thing you know, he pops the ball out of the yard, and that's Sori, that's him. He's just got a flair for playing the game.
I think from his standpoint, he wants to help us so much. He feels like he's gotten off to a slow start, and he's been out of the lineup. I think sometimes players lose sight of the fact of how much respect and how appreciated they are by their teammates. You don't sit there and talk about it. I remember last year, we ran into that early on. Guys were scuffling and the lineups were shuffling, and rightfully so. I think players need to remember at the end of the day, their teammates know what they're about. We're around them so much. Sori's going to have a great year. This was just a blip on the radar screen for him.
Thanks for joining me here, and any suggestions for a permanent title for my blog are welcomed.



