ERVIN SANTANA
On coming five to 10 minutes from shutting it down:
“I know. It was tough because of the rain, but at the same time, I was waiting for any decision that they made because I was waiting for a long time. They made the right decision and I was still in the game.”
On how many innings he threw inside:
“Probably three. I threw a couple pitches and then sat down and wait like 10 minutes. Then I warmed up again. It worked.”
On if eager to get it done regardless of conditions, after missing last start:
“Yeah of course. Every time when you go into an outing like that, especially with a tough pitcher like he is, it was a great outing. We both pitched good. I think he got no-decision. We got the win.”
On if stuff was better after rain delay:
“Yeah, it was much better. Location was much better. My offspeed. And my fastball in was better.”
On if because not throwing in rain or finding a rhythm:
“I think it was finding the rhythm. That was the key for me tonight.”
On if felt different from last outing, better feel for all pitches:
“Yeah I had a much better feel and more energy. The ball was coming out very good.”
On damage control:
“It was tough but the good thing is I made good pitches and I got people out.”
RYAN DOUMIT
On getting that first run on the board:
“It’s nice to contribute, coming off the bench. In a big situation like that, it’s nice to pull your own weight around here. It felt good.”
On winning games last two nights with small ball:
“I said this earlier, this is a team that I don’t think we’ve clicked on all cylinders yet from an offensively standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from a pitching standpoint, we haven’t all clicked at once. I think we’re starting to show that we can and once we do, it’s really going to be scary.”
On the job Santana did after rain delay:
“It’s a typical Santana outing. We’ve come to expect that. He’s a guy that every time he toes the rubber, he gives us a chance to win, keeps us in the game. He’s the type of guy you want to play behind.”
TYLER PASTORNICKY
On getting the bunt down:
“It’s a big situation. You’ve got runners in scoring position late in the game. Just glad I got it down. It wasn’t a very easy pitch to get down but you’re just trying to execute, get it down, get Simmons in there.”
On what the pitch was:
“It was a two-seamer in. It was running in off the plate. It just kind of kept coming at me but I got enough bat on it and just kind of directed it in fair territory.”
On every run being important with offensive scuffling:
“Especially late in the games. We haven’t really been swinging the bats all that great. Any way you can get runs across, especially late in the game and turn it over to our bullpen, it’s always a good thing.”
On just trying to get it on the ground somewhere:
“Get it in fair territory. I think I bunted it right back to the pitcher. If you know it’s a suicide squeeze, you know your only job is to just try to get it down.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On the double by Doumit:
“Coming off the bench, yesterday he gave us another good at-bat. That’s what we got him for right there. He knows how to prepare. You know what the time of day by where he’s going to be. He comes in, he’s in the weight room, in the cage at a certain time, he prepares and you throw him in a game every once in a while so he can get four at-bats and then he can really, really hurt you off the bench. That was a big run right there and then Tyler executing the squeeze there to get us another run. When you’re not scoring runs offensively, every little run that you can scratch is big. Santana was terrific, better than terrific really, you throw in an hour-plus rain delay and he’s throwing in the cage just to stay loose. We were about five, 10 minutes from shutting him down. It was that long. And he did a terrific job, then Carp and Kimbrel. And we got a chance to win a series which we haven’t done in three series. That feels good.”
On nearly shutting Santana down:
“You don’t want guys sitting around for an hour and a half, an hour and 20 minutes, even though he’s throwing, you’ve got to count those pitches. We were that close….Once we got word we could go around 8:30, 8:35, we felt pretty good we dodged that.”
On confidence in Pastornicky to put squeeze on with infield in, even after a pitch out:
“Well, that’s what he’s here for. He’s here to be the guy. We’ve got plenty of guys in the middle of the lineup that can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Tyler is a guy, same thing with Pena, you’re going to put the hit and run on. You’re going to put the sac bunt every once in a while. You’re going to squeeze and execute it, draw a tough assignment with Samardzija. Yeah you feel comfortable that he could do that.”
On B.J. getting bunt down too:
“We executed. We executed all night on a lot of the fundamental stuff other than the rundown. I hope nobody’s watching that rundown. At the end of the day we got an out, but that wasn’t textbook. But we did a nice job sac bunting. We got the squeeze down and we sure pitched really, really well today.”
On if pitch got Justin Upton on the same spot:
“Right on the same spot. It was right dead on the same spot. We thought we dodged a bullet when he went back out there and then he came in and swung, he got a base hit. Then he got him right in the same spot. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow but with a short turnaround we’ll probably give him the afternoon but hopefully it doesn’t materialize into anything else other than just sore.”
