Pedro Strop: "I can't wait to pitch again"

Pedro Strop said he is turning the page. Even as he is the primary topic on the local talk shows. and the focus of stories and blogs and message boards, Strop said he is focusing now on the next game and not his last game. "This is a new day," he said moments ago in the Orioles clubhouse. "I can't wait to pitch again. I can't wait to be back on the mound and do whatever I have to do to help my team win." He was asked if he is physically sound right now. "Yeah, my body feels pretty good," Strop said. "I have no pain at all, everything feels good." Strop feels his biggest issues right now are mechanics and command. He didn't have enough of the latter yesterday against the Angels. "It was a rough, tough one to swallow. It's not OK. What is OK and what is good is I'm going to do my best to get myself back on track. Today is a new day. Yesterday wasn't a good one, but I'm expecting today is going to be one of the best days of my life. I'm going to work hard and give 100 percent to help my team to win," Strop said. Strop was asked if he had any issues coming into the game with two runners on base, rather than starting a clean inning. "I like the pressure of the game," Strop said. "It's always better when bases are empty, but I'm used to pitching like that and I like the pressure. That wasn't the point of the outing yesterday. I'm expecting to do a better job today." He said had he fielded that Hank Conger grounder back to the box, he would have started a 1-6-3 double play. But after that, he still needed to get the job done and he didn't. "After that happened, I have to be able to shut that down and stop them from scoring runs. The point is, I have to be able to hold them down," Strop said. So as he goes back to work and tries to make improvements, what does he need to work on? "Command," Strop said. "I have to command my fastball and be able to move my fastball around and throw my secondary pitches for strikes. My command wasn't that bad yesterday. Things started speeding up a little bit because I was out of sorts a little bit. But like I said earlier, this is a new day."