You look at the two teams, you would assume that we needed to win this game to make the playoffs, that’s the way we’re playing right now, and it’s been fun to watch. Clearly, we’re executing a lot better than we were in previous games. Against Oakland, we match up well with them for some reason.

Chris Woodward

That’s my job, that’s my job is to bring it every day. When it comes to being positive, I’m not always smiling, but I’m always optimistic about moving this thing forward. I have to be. That’s my responsibility to the organization and to these players, to the team.

If there isn’t clear view down the line, maybe we need to install a camera for that, it was more like a millimeter off the base. ... That’s not what instant replay’s designed for.

This guy is a special human being, the way he just communicates with people, not just players, but just the positive light that he brings every day, that ability to relate goes a long way, especially with players. ... It's hard to develop trust with everybody, and this guy does it on a daily basis. And it’s genuine, it’s real.

I’d like to see him kind of move around a little bit, he came into camp, made the team, earned it. Obviously didn’t perform as well as he’d like, went back down. ... He’s earned the right to be back here with this opportunity.

I think the surprising thing is that, you know, maybe in the age of pitchers not going 100 pitches, that they’re actually being able to finish these games off. Because typically nowadays it’s hard for a guy to get through six innings with less than 100 pitches, that’s probably more surprising to me. And there hasn’t been a 160-pitch no-hitter yet, which is like gut-wrenching for a manager. I can’t even imagine having to deal with that.

Manager Chris Woodward still lives in Arizona, where Manager Chris Woodward was already talking about 105-degree temperatures last week when expressing Manager Chris Woodward preference for workouts in Texas. Being in Texas instead of Arizona would eliminate the close proximity to some other teams to play additional spring training games before the season. The Rangers would have to depend primarily on intrasquad games to get prepared for the season. This year is obviously different from any other year. Our guys know that, and Ive talked to them at length about that. So anything we do is going to not be normal.