Brian Matusz said that everything went according to plan in today's intrasquad game, though he admitted that he would have rather been the starter for tonight's televised game against the Yankees.
"It was great,'' he said. "I accomplished everything I wanted to work on today. We were throwing runners out there so I could work on my slidestep, because I didn't do that well with runners on base in my last time out."
Though it seemed like the major league relievers who pitched an inning early in the intrasquad game had trouble getting any rhythm established, Matusz settled down after a walk in the first and was basically unhittable, except for that one pitch that Billy Rowell launched out to center field. Pitching coach Rick Kranitz had to add outs in the sixth and seventh innings to get his pitch count up.
"It was a little bit strange,'' Matusz said, "especially having to get a few extra outs, but you're going to have some long innings, so it was nice to stay out there and throw 20 or 25 pitches and get that work in."