“We're a below average team. Period.”
-Jerry Manuel
“I wasn't applauding him tonight, but you do have to applaud that.”
-Jerry Manuel on Mariano Rivera’s 500th save
“It looks like his ball really gets on guys.”
-Jerry Manuel on Fernando Nieve
“We need a couple guys to get hot, and we'll have to manage around that. Right now, we don't have that going on right now.”
-Jerry Manuel
“We have to believe. We have to be optimistic that we can stay competitive. We have to guard against that particular mind-set that might permeate in the clubhouse that, man, there's not much left.”
-Jerry Manuel
“I felt that offensively we could still score on their bullpen. I was obviously wrong about that.”
-Jerry Manuel on the Rays bullpen
“I've probably, to a fault, used them too much. What I have to do is probably trust the other people I have down there. If I'm not trusting them, then I should find someone else.”
-Jerry Manuel on his own bullpen
“I'll be honest with you: I can't figure it out. I really don't have [an explanation].”
-Jerry Manuel on David Wright’s offensive season
“It's been a tremendous surprise, obviously a pleasant one.”
-Jerry Manuel on Fernando Nieve
“From a team point of view, it's just something that you have to deal with. I don't get too - with the way things have gone, I'm almost kind of hardened.”
-Jerry Manuel
“Our thing is to bob and weave and jab, and they be hitting us with body blows.”
-Jerry Manuel on…something?
“I don't laugh at those. It's a nightmare and I wake up sweating. But it's a part of baseball. In the course of 162, everybody gets their breaks and all those things even out, for the most part.”
-Jerry Manuel on Aubrey Huff’s error (similar to Luis Castillo’s error a few days earlier)
“Everybody hits a little bump in the road now and then.”
-Jerry Manuel on Johan Santana’s disaster of a start
“We'll stick together. We're a team. We win together, we lose together. We'll have to fight through this.”
-Jerry Manuel on last night’s loss