**FREDI GONZALEZ
On David Hale’s debut
“David was outstanding. You couldn’t have asked for anything more. Couldn’t have been a better script. He set a franchise record for a debut, young kid, he was outstanding. He was right up there at 90 (87) pitches, that’s where we targeted for him to throw. Believe me, tomorrow he’s going to wake up probably thinking he threw 150, being his first time pitching in the major leagues.
“He left the game with a 3-nothing lead. We just didn’t get a chance to add on any runs. We got three runs in that inning and then didn’t do very much after that.”
On the bullpen blowing lead
“It’s tough. Our bullpen is a really good bullpen. Sometimes it’s tough to cover that many outs before you get the ball to Kimbrel. That didn’t happen. Now we go back out tomorrow and try to get a win.”
On not scoring after two singles to start 6th inning
“Gattis strikes out, and then McCann (lines into double play), that ball might have been hit harder than the home run. If that ball gets up the middle, maybe splits the gap, we get a couple more runs, a couple of add-ons. That’s just tough luck there for us.”
Walden show some rust?
“Oh, I don’t know. First-pitch fastball to a pretty good hitter, ran him out of the ballpark. But I thought he did OK. It’s one of those situations in September, you get your bullpen the way you want it and they have five pinch-hitting changes there trying to match up against our guys. That’s what you get sometimes in September baseball.
“I thought Walden was OK. And let’s go get ‘em tomorrow.”
More on Hale
“His stuff was electric. He had a two-seamer going, a sinker that the bottom was just dropping out of. I’m glad we got him a start here at home in front of his people here. Good for him. You can’t ask for anything more than that, really. Now you can’t wait to run him back out there, whether it’s, I hope, later on this year sometime. Or maybe even next year. But the young man was terrific.”
**DAVID HALE
On his debut
“I think it went pretty well. Got all my nerves out. Didn’t throw up or trip running out there, so … gotta be happy with that.”
How do you explain striking out nine in five innings here, after not striking out more than six in Triple-A?
“I can’t. It was a dream come true, it really was. I just had so much adrenaline and emotion, I’m just happy it turned out that way.
“Adrenaline helps, I guess.”
How many friends and family members did you have here?
“Oh, God, I have no idea. I’d say over 100. I told them that I’d just leave tickets for my immediate family.”
On his mother and father crying when interviewed on Braves broadcast
“My mom cries a lot.” (smiles)
Was about half of The Walker School here?
“I think so. I had some friends from school, from the baseball team at Princeton, who came down. We had that planned for a few months now. It just turned out perfect that I’d be throwing today.”
You’d said you were working on your sinker before, what was working for you tonight?
“That.”
On his nerves
“After that first pitch I just settled down and let what I’ve been doing take over.”
Does the ending detract anything from your night?
“Obviously I wish we could have gotten the win there and shrunk that magic number. But I’m still glad to have a good first one under my belt.”
Can this help your confidence going forward, next year at camp and all that?
“Yeah, absolutely does. Like I said, just to have one under my belt and know that I can do it, so it’s huge. Get the jitters out, first-game jitters.”
Will you be able to sleep tonight?
“Probably not. Probably not at all.”
**BRIAN McCANN
On David Hale
“What a debut that was.”
Know anything about him before tonight?
“No. In the spring I was kind of inside doing my own program for my shoulder. I didn’t even get a chance to catch him in the spring. But I went down there early and caught the whole bullpen, talked to him before the game, talked to him about executing and dictating the count, and he did that to a T tonight. He pounded the zone early, got ahead, then made them hit his pitch. His sinker darts all over the place.”
On outcome doing nothing to take away from Hale’s performance
“When you can come in and debut, the nerves that you have when you go on the field – I can’t imagine what it’s like being a starting pitcher making your debut. For a position player it’s a little different, I think. For a pitcher, all eyes are on you. So I tip my hat to him. He came out and battled, pitched about as well as you could pitch.”
**JUSTIN UPTON
On David Hale
“He did a great job.”
On Padres starter Ian Kennedy
“He’s a little bit sneaky, his fastball gets on you a little bit. He mixed his pitches well. You definitely have to see him for at-bat to try to get a gauge on everything. The second time through we got some good pitches to hit.”
On Padres bullpen
“They’ve got a lot of guys down there. They can mix and match well, especially with September callups. It was tough on our hitters, and we’re going to have to figure out a way.”
On reaching 25 homers
“Yeah, the numbers are pretty decent. It’s pretty cool obviously to hit 25 homers, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
