Tillman on Tillman

Robert Andino dropped a fly ball in left field in the eighth inning. He looked like a shortstop trying to play the outfield. Hard to pile too much blame on him. Chris Tillman found some positive aspects about tonight's start, but he didn't have many kind things to say about his 27-pitch third inning. He kept going back to how long that inning lasted, though he threw five more pitches in the second. "I thought it went well overall, but that third inning, those kinds of innings are unacceptable," he said. "I think without that one inning, I could be in the seventh or eighth inning, but I felt like I was out there for an hour-and-a-half. "I was around the zone, they were fouling off a lot of pitches, I was shaking off a lot of pitches. It was the longest inning I've had in my career. It took forever. But without that inning, you go deep in the ballgame." Tillman was frustated that the strike zone tightened up on him. "I was working hard to get early contact and they just kind of stood there and watched them, and someone made a comment to me that it means you're probably throwing pretty good pitches and are just missing," he said. "I thought most of those could have gone either way. I thought a lot of them were right around the zone." Tillman conceded that he wasn't on the same page as catcher Craig Tatum. Now for the good stuff: "I thought my fastball was great, I thought my curveball was the best it's been in two years," he said. Manager Dave Trembley told reporters before the game that the rotation won't include any shockers. He seemed to imply that Tillman will be included. "I really don't know," Tillman said. "I've been clueless the whole spring. They told me to work my butt off in the off-season and in spring training because it's up in the air. That's a fair way to go about it. The other guys are working their butts off, too."