Bobby Valentine did some damage control on Sunday, two days after saying he was working with "the weakest roster we've ever had in September in the history of baseball."

"The other day when I made a comment about our September roster, that wasn't meant to be a criticism of any players or anything in the organization," he said. "It's a statement of fact because of the injuries and our Triple-A team in the playoffs. This is different. We have less people than most September rosters. We have less positions filled than any September roster I've ever seen before.

"Anybody who thought that to be anything other than a statement of what it was, stand corrected on that."