He had us in a hole all night. He found the strike zone and he said, 'hit it,' and we didn't.

There's several great points from our standpoint in that game. It was Backe's first time back, and he kept us in the ballgame. And Wandy Rodriguez, who has been a starter, he goes out and gives us one inning and kind of bridges our bullpen.

I moved him for Morgan. When he came back from the hand injury, I wanted him in a position where guys are going to have to pitch to him and he's going to get pitches. I switched him back because I didn't think he was swinging the bat that good. I prefer to have Lance in that third hole and as it turned out today, Morgan came through big.

These guys are tough, I'm telling you. I don't recall any easy games against them. But we'll take it because it was important.

Usually, over the years, I manage to keep the closer pretty well spread out, ... That's not been the case this year.

I don't like to see that happen because he usually pitches in innings where there's no margin for error,