High Praise for Matusz

Here are some thoughts about Brian Matusz’s outing tonight, which was truly a delight to watch.  

Rays manager Joe Maddon

“This guy is going to be good for a long time. He has a lot of weapons he’s poised, he gets good hitters out, he gets good hitters out all of the time. “

Rays first baseman Carlos Pena

“It was tough today for us. This guy, Matusz, came out just nasty. He was throwing strikes with everything in the zone. He was locating. He was very tough on us.”

“You can’t deny that the outing was stupendous by him. I know it didn’t go his way in the last inning that he threw, but one through seven he was just lights out.”

Orioles infielder Ty Wigginton

“I made the comment in the dugout, he was really fun to play in the field behind. When a pitchers hitting his spots like he is, as he’s releasing the ball you are starting to lean away and they are actually hitting it in that direction. He was on top of his game and it’s shame we couldn’t bail him out.”

Orioles manager Dave Trembley

“Matusz pitched about as good a game as you’re going to get. [He] had location, had a feel for all his pitches, worked ahead, worked quick, pitched down. Tremendous game.”

Here’s Matusz on his outing:

“I felt comfortable out there today. I was able to just relax and throw a lot of strikes and work fast. The changeup was a great strikeout pitch for me, but I felt the other pitches help set that up. I threw some good curveballs and some nice sliders and was working in and out with the fastball really well.”

“I still felt good going out in that 8th. It was just a couple of hits that went through the hole. That’s going to happen with a good team like Tampa. They don’t give in. Even if things aren’t going their way, they don’t give in. You could see they were able to string a couple of hits together and, unfortunately for us, they put them together at the right time. I still felt strong in that last inning. Looking back on it, I’d probably like to throw some different pitches but I still felt good overall. I felt strong and didn’t give in.