DAN UGGLA
On what team needs to do to break out of funk:
“We’ve got to pick up our attitude, we’ve got to pick up our intensity. Not saying that we didn’t play hard today or we didn’t play hard yesterday but we’ve got to pick it up. Just every aspect. Our pitching has been awesome the last couple days and we’ve gotten zero run support for them so we have to score some runs but to get on a stretch like this. We’ve just got to hustle, make things happen, positive attitude, hustle and make things happen. That’s the only way you can get out of stretches like this.”
On trying that with a couple of guys caught stealing:
“Yeah but at the same time we still need some timely hitting to kick in too. We’ve got to keep grinding out at-bats and keep hitting the ball hard and we need to stay positive.”
On disadvantage of facing pitcher you haven’t seen:
“A little bit but there’s no excuse. This is baseball. He didn’t have anything that any of us haven’t seen before. Not to take anything away from him, he did a great job today. But yeah, there’s no disadvantage with that.”
On KRod’s 300th save:
“He’s got great stuff, man. Throws hard. Got an awesome curveball and an awesome changeup and he throws strikes. He’s done it for a long time. Our hat goes off to him, congratulations to him. That’s a huge number.”
TIM HUDSON
On giving up only a couple hits here and there:
“You’ve got to just keep grinding it out. Obviously things haven’t really turned out how we want them to since we’ve been here, and me for my last few starts. But that’s baseball. Unfortunately sometimes you lose games like that. You’ve just got to go out there and keep plugging along and grind through it. Hopefully the tide starts turning a little bit.”
On how he felt:
“I felt fine. I felt great. The runs I gave up, I felt like I made good pitches on. Francisco put one, beat the shift there and Ramirez – I threw a sinker in on him and it jammed him but he’s strong enough to muscle it over the shortstop’s head. Unfortunately you would hope that a couple hits like that wouldn’t cost you the game but that’s kind of how it’s been a little bit. We’ve got to just keep fighting through it and get through this little thing that we’ve got going as a team. I feel confident it’ll be, hopefully this will be short-lived.”
On if trying to be careful with Aoki:
“Nah, I couldn’t throw him a strike. I don’t know what it was. I was trying to center cut it every time. I think he was halfway running to first base before I throw the ball. I think that might have something to do with it. I don’t know. It freaks me out a little bit, like he’s charging the mound.”
On sense if guys are starting to press:
“Nah, that’s baseball. It happens. There’s no panic on our part. Guys understand that’s how it is. You come across some pretty good pitching and young kid today going out there and making his first start, excited about being out there. You’ve got to tip your cap to guys on the mound. There’s a guy on that mound making some pretty good money in this game that’s supposed to get you out sometimes. People have to remember that. It’s not very easy.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On getting the pitching, not the hitting:
“Yeah, Huddy was really, really good. Gave up some groundball singles which sinkerballers tend to do. But shoot, two runs in six innings, same thing as last night – you feel like you’ve got a good chance to win the game. We’re not swinging it right now obviously. We got four hits today, two walks, we’re just not swinging it. When we do hit the ball hard it’s at somebody or somebody makes a good play. That happens. I feel like at any moment, some of the at-bats you’re seeing, at any moment you’re going to turn that around. Just keep plugging away. Keep pitching and keep swinging the bats and it’ll turn.”
On getting Wood back-to-back:
“That was planned. The first time he’s done it. Yesterday he only threw 10 pitches, so you feel comfortable and give him a chance. He did a terrific job. He really did a nice job. Leadoff double to Weeks and then he gets out the rest of the guys. That’s a hurdle now that he’s gone through, first time probably in his professional career, maybe in his pitching career, that he’s gone back-to-back days. So that’s good to see, the velocity was good to see there again. And the changeup he threw, the last pitch to Aoki might have been the best changeup he’s thrown all year. That ball just plain out disappeared. That’s a good thing to get under his belt. And I asked him after his inning, how do you feel? And he goes ‘I feel great.’ That’s also a good sign.”
On two runners caught stealing:
“Trying to get something going. It’s tough to sit there on your hands and yesterday we tried a little safety squeeze, trying to just get a run on the board. Who knows, you get a guy – we’re not running with slow guys, we’re running with guys that are legitimate base-stealers and get a guy in scoring position, maybe a bloop single gets him going and here we go. We break the ice and who knows from there? That’s what we’re trying to do.”
On if scoreless innings add to pressure:
“No there’s no pressure. This is not Game 162 or anything like that, or Game 7 of a playoff. It’s the middle of the season and you’re going to run into these games that you’re not going to be able to score runs, these streaks. But come out tomorrow and Pauly give us an opportunity to win the game and us swing the bats. It could turn in a hurry.”
On Rodriguez’s 300th save:
“Good for him. Here’s a guy, I thought he might have had 300 in one year, didn’t he? The year with Anaheim. Good for him. That’s a nice feat, nice to put in his resume. When he tells his grandkids, there’s not very many guys that had 300 saves and he’s still a fairly young man so I’m sure he’s got an opportunity to add some more.”
On 60 lineups in 76 games:
“Some of it is by injuries or matchups or off days, stuff like that. You’re seeing stuff, going into today Jason was hitting .300 in the month of June right around there, and B.J. is starting to swing the bat a little bit. So we’ll keep juggling. It’ll be 61 tomorrow. I can guarantee you that.”
On if time to throw the water cooler:
“It’s a long season. You start doing that, you start losing your hair and that kind of stuff.”
FREDDIE FREEMAN
On scoreless streak:
“It’s a little frustrating. You’re going up there trying to put up good at-bats it’s just one of those things, things aren’t going out way. We’re just not getting hits right now.”
On if game plan to be aggressive vs. Hand:
“That’s everybody’s game plan with everybody. I think we’re all very aggressive hitters and he was nibbling and we were going after it still. It was just one of those things where you don’t face pitchers very often you don’t know what their tendencies are, and when you feel like you’ve got a little grip on him he’s out of the game. and the new one comes in. it’s kind of hard to get comfortable and get things rolling against new pitchers all the time.”
On Hudson:
“He was awesome. He’s been awesome for the last five, six starts. It’s just unfortunate. He’s got to be our lowest run support guy on this team. We seem to not be able to get him any runs and he keeps going up there and throwing 1 or 2s up there the last few starts and we’ve got nothing for him to show for it.”
On combination of what they’re doing, or not doing:
“I really don’t know. Everybody is going to have their stretches where they’re going to go through where the offense doesn’t click or the pitching isn’t clicking. Everybody is going to have that and right now we’ve got the offense not clicking. It’s hard to score runs when you’ve got two guys who are the only guys who got hits today. It’s going to be one of those things. Huddy deserved to win the way he pitched today and we just didn’t get it done.”
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