EVAN GATTIS
On if just looking for a pitch to drive against Hamels:
“It’s kind of been the same thing, looking for my pitch and got some good pitches to hit early in the at-bat and yeah, luckily had some success.”
On if that’s about as good as you can drive a ball there:
“Pretty much. Maybe in Mississippi this year, maybe, but yeah, just got a good pitch to it.”
On seeing results after going down to Gwinnett:
“Yeah definitely, I think so. Like I said it was good to go down there and get consistent at-bats where I could guarantee myself four at-bats a game.”
On if longest in majors this year surprises him (ESPN estimated 486 feet):
“Yeah, I figured someone would hit one further, (Giancarlo) Stanton or somebody, but whatever, it all counts as one. And we lost the game today. Just ready to get after them in Miami.”
On almost got him in second at-bat:
“Yeah I thought I hit it well enough to at least get off the wall or something, maybe the wind knocked it down or something, but put a good swing on that ball as well.”
On Phillies pitching staff tough despite record:
“Yeah, everybody is pretty much tough, big league pitchers. Get back at them tomorrow. The games count as one, so just put it on them and see what happens.”
PAUL MAHOLM
On settling down after first inning:
“Obviously in the first, the worst is hitting the first guy. Trying to throw a backfoot slider. Obviously I threw a backfoot slider that hit his backfoot. But then walking Rollins, I missed with a pitch to Utley but then the groundball to Ruf hit my glove. I guess I just misjudged it and it hit the very bottom of my glove and could have gotten away with giving up just one. But then after that I felt pretty good, got some groundballs, got some double plays, try to do everything I could to keep us in it. Obviously the way that Cole has been pitching, you can’t give up a whole lot of runs. Obviously Gattis was the bright spot. We’ve got to learn from it, go on and get back to playing how we do at home.”
On after Gattis home run changed the game:
“Obviously being only down two and it gets within one run, here you can be down three and it can change pretty quick. So it was more of just, I think the guys – for me I’m trying to put zeros just so we have an opportunity. Obviously Gattis saw the ball pretty well off of him and unfortunately they were solo shots but those are the kind of things that as a whole, obviously you like to start the game off putting up zeros, and let the offense get going from there.”
On pitching has been good the whole way, look at last 3 weeks:
“You look at these three games, we lost 2-1, 3-2 and 6-5 it’s not like we came in here and got blown out or anything. We lost three close games. It’s going to happen. But we need to go into Miami and expect to win a series. They’ve got some good pitching, but I’m going to take our lineup and the guys we’re throwing on the mound and expect it to be a good series but expect to win and hopefully play like we did there for the three-week stretch where we got the big lead. And now we’ve just got to continue to not really worry about what other teams are doing but just win games.”
B.J. UPTON
On the job Phillies pitchers did this weekend:
“They pitched well all three days. Unfortunately it happened that way. We felt like we were definitely in the ballgame. We played some good baseball, it’s just tough to get the offense going against those guys this weekend.”
On still liking position you’re in, heading to Florida:
“Yeah we’re fine. We’ll come back ready to play tomorrow. Things like this happen. We’ve been playing well all year. This is why you give yourself that cushion. Can’t expect to win them all. We’ve been playing well all year; we’ll bounce back tomorrow.”
On vantage point on Gattis home run:
“He hit a good pitch down and away, stayed on it well.”
On not too surprised anymore to see how Gattis can punish a ball:
“Oh yeah. It’s one of the longest I’ve ever seen. That ball went a long way. He kept us in the game today.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Maholm:
“Pauly gave us a great chance to win the game, he really did. We got two hits, two hits by Gattis, two solo home runs. Other than that, we didn’t do very much offensively. We didn’t do very much offensively the whole weekend really. But we pitched well all three games. All were one-run ballgames. We need to get our bats going.”
On still feeling like good position despite sweep:
“You know what? We keep pitching. You want to come in and win the series, two out of three, and we didn’t swing the bats. That’s the bottom line. There’s no excuses about that. We pitched good enough to win and didn’t hit enough to win ballgames.”
On what you expect from Hamels:
“He gave us some fits offensively but we just never kept the line moving but the good thing is that we pitched. We pitched and to this point that is what has been our most consistent part. Now we’ve got to get the bats going.”
On if he thinks hitters are pressing:
“I don’t think so. It’s the same guys that hit all the time. Gattis has gotten a couple hits, Freeman gives you good at-bats, Chris Johnson is at any given time second or third in the league in batting average but we’ve just got to keep going.”
On Gattis’ ball hard as he’s seen:
“Yeah I don’t even know what the distance was but that’s straightaway center. He almost had three. The second one he had I think the wind just kicked up at the right time and may have knocked it down a little bit. I thought that one had a chance also.”
On Freeman running into that wall with his right knee:
“Yeah I think he just banged it up a little bit. Bubba just came out of my office 10 minutes ago, he said he’s fine. It’s one of those things that we’re going to have to just manage a little bit and hopefully down the road here we can give him a couple days, but nothing major.”
(From the Phillies clubhouse, compliments of the esteemed Hall of Fame writer Paul Hagen)
COLE HAMELS
On Evan Gattis:
“He’s strong.”
On what he saw that no one else was:
“He swung at the first pitch, and he swung with everything he had in him. I felt like I was throwing a golf ball out there and he had a driver. He’s probably going to be in that strongest man competition at the end of the year. Definitely going to vote on him because he’ll win. It was impressive. You’re trying to work a couple pitches in just to get ahead and he definitely didn’t let me have it. I guess I’m glad I’m not throwing against him the rest of the year.”
On his other two at-bats:
“His first two swings went pretty far. Second (homer) curve ball. It went pretty far too.”
On his flyball to the track:
“You thought the way that stayed in the park was out too. I guess if the 50 mph winds blowing in didn’t keep it in play, it definitely would have been off the wall, or through it. He could have had three homers.”
RYNE SANDBERG
On the game plan vs. Gattis:
“Turn up the wind a little bit more. Those balls…a tornado might’ve been blowing and the first one would’ve gotten out of here. That was dead into the teeth. He just had a couple good swings on Cole. Solo home runs. Lot of times you don’t lose on solo home runs, and that was the case there.”
