All comments from Joe Torre unless otherwise noted:

On the Angels: “They are a good ball club, no question about it.  They know how to play, they’ve had success, they’re very aggressive.  And obviously you want to keep the speed guys off the base which isn’t easy ’cause they’re a lot of them in the lineup.”

On the Freeway Series: “There’s always a certain amount of energy that’s brought to the ballpark…from both cities.  I always find that the players, whatever the rivalry is….they they feed off the energy in the ballpark.  I expect it to be that way tonight.”

On Xavier Paul’s Staph Infection on his Left Leg : “He’s in the hospital, but he’s going to be fine.  Everything points to starting the recovery, but obviously it’s going to be a while before he plays baseball.”

On Xavier Paul’s Staph Infection on his Left Leg (from Director of Medical Services Stan Conte): “Xavier had a previous infection that was classified as MRSA which is a type of staph infection that is resistant to a lot of the antibiotics, so it’s difficult to treat.  It was treated successfully, he was fine for a period of time.  In Florida, he slid for that catch that he made.  He had a little, small scrape on his knee, which is not uncommon with any baseball player.  On Tuesday morning, he called us and said it was a little red.  We looked at it Tuesday morning, sent him to the doctor who cultured it, put him on an antibiotic that works effectively with MRSA.  By Wednesday after the game he had a full-blown infection – it happened that fast.  We sent him to USC Hospital, Infectious Disease.  After the game…I took him over there, put him on IV antibiotics, which is the course, and drained the skin, cleared it up of a lot of the infection.  He’s at USC and doing well.  His swelling and infection is resolving, but he’ll probably be in there a couple more days.”

On When Xavier Paul May Play Again (Stan Conte): “We won’t let him play or sweat until that skin is completely closed. I won’t really know until we see how that is and how that resolves, but it definitely could be weeks.”

On Corey Wade:“As far as roles on this club, Corey Wade, we know he’s an eighth inning guy and when Corey’s not available, we pretty much let the situation dictate who is pitching the eighth.”

On Will Ohman and Brent Leach:“Ohman’s been like a one hitter guy, and I think that’s the role we’re going to use him in for now…where we’re sitting now, the way Leach is pitching, it’s nice to have two of them where you can use one early and one late.”

On Juan Pierre: “I’ve never been around anybody who works as hard as he does, as far as the time he puts in doing what he does.”

On the Freeway Series (from Mike Scioscia):  “As far as Southern California fans, yeah, you definitely sense it walking around town.  I was walking around my house today, people were saying ‘Go get ‘em…good luck.’ They know we’re playing the Dodgers.”