I don't have to get a pitch down the middle. If I like the pitch-even if it's 15 inches off the plate, and that's the pitch I wanted-I'm swinging.

I don't have to get a pitch down the middle. If I like the pitch-even if it's 15 inches off the plate, and that's the pitch I wanted-I'm swinging.

As a ballplayer, you just want to feel respected. I like the way Washington presented the team to me and I feel good about what was being said.

I just have to come back tomorrow and try again, ... I have to look at the ball and keep swinging.

I dedicate all my time to baseball, because when you come from where I come from, you don't want to risk anything.

I think it looked like I was a little more aggressive than I was, ... I swing at bad pitches anyway, but I was swinging at even more bad pitches and missing. It looked worse. But I was thinking about [the milestone], no doubt about it.

When we are youths in the Dominican, we pick up bats and balls because baseball is part of what we grow up with. The fun feeling you get playing keeps your head up when you encounter difficult times.