On playing seasons within a season:
“The streak is definitely behind us; we got past that, and stated from day one that our second season was coming with the Pac-10 opener. The players separated the two. We’re in the third week of nine, really, and we know that every weekend is a tremendous challenge. We know the Pac-10 is as good as it’s been in a long, long time.”

On the team’s batting numbers falling in recent weeks:
“It’s called the West Coast. It’s called west coach pitching, it’s called west coast scouting reports. It’s called video, front of the line arms, pro arms, that we’re facing week-in, week-out. When you get into league, you have a bunch of guys who are really good in the other dugout. The numbers tend to even out and get a little more realistic. We knew we’d win some games 2-1, 3-1. But we really like our offense – we still have a ton of confidence in them.”

On ignoring the rankings:
“We haven’t talked about the polls one time this year. Preseason, during the season, when we were moving up. Now that in some polls we are No. 1, that doesn’t change. This team isn’t that type of team.”

On Dan Klein in the closer role:
“It’s all about roles. We did a good job of communicating the roles to our players this year. They’ve really taken hold of their roles. The starters, the long-relievers, the set-up guys, certainly Dan. He came to me in the offseason and said I want to be the closer, I want to have the ball at the end of the game. Whenever you have roles and you have guys performing them well, things seem to go smoothly.”