TIM HUDSON
On if this was how you planned 200:
“It was a fun game. Obviously it’s kind of surreal—nobody expects to go out there and hit a home run. It was a fun night all the way around. I felt like I threw the ball well. I felt like I was in command throughout the seven innings. And you know what, man, if you swing hard sometimes you hit it. That was the case tonight.
On a special night all around:
“I couldn’t have written it up any better for me personally. My family was here. Kim and Kennedie came. My dad, my brothers, some nieces and nephews were here. It was fun to go out there and have some fun from start to finish. We put up some runs early, made it easier on me to go out there and be aggressive. To get out of that one (seventh) inning with a lead-off triple without giving it up was kind of a cherry on top.”
On hitting two shots like that, feel dialed in mentally:
“It’s fun. It’s one of those nights where things are just falling your way, things are falling in place for your team. We never expect to go out there and get hits, honestly. You get some guys out there throwing some cheese, you’ve got one of the best left-handers in the game, honestly. We put together some really good at-bats, fortunately most of the time us pitchers the only thing we have to worry about is hitting a fastball. So our job is a little bit easier to not get fooled on offspeed because we don’t see a lot of it. But it was a great night all the way around. The guys played great. Evan Gattis called a great game. He’s been awesome ever since he’s been gotten up here catching me. It’s amazing that the first time he’s ever caught me was in a major league baseball game against the Cubs and I feel like we’ve had really good outings ever time I’ve thrown to him.”
On if hitting is an underappreciated part of his game:
“Well, back in the day, I used to shoot them out that way all the time. (clears his throat). You know what. We’re pitchers. We’re not supposed to hit a home run anywhere, much less over there (to right field). He hit my barrel. I think I might have backspun it a little bit. It was just one of those nights where things were lined up. The stars were aligned and I guess it was meant to be.”
On if this win was one of his more memorable:
“It definitely is, for me. You rarely have a chance to accomplish something like this – 200 wins and then to hit a home run and your family is in the stands watching, your team is in first place and playing pretty good baseball. Things are good. Hopefully we can keep it up.”
On Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz not hitting home runs when they won 200:
“They sure didn’t. You’ve got to have some pop.”
On if pointed up at Glavine in the broadcast booth:
"Nah, he's a singles hitter." (He's aughing. Shortly thereafter Glavine came by and shook his hand. Fun night for both of those guys.)
On if it the significance of 200 wins has hit him:
“It has. Honestly, it’s a great accomplishment for anybody but I feel like it’s something along the way, hopefully I can accomplish more in this game. I feel like I can play for a while. I haven’t really missed a beat from 17, 18 years ago. Just a little more crafty nowadays. Definitely more pop.”
On what means to be in same sentence with Niekro, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz:
“Honestly, I don’t know. I still don’t consider myself really worthy of being in those kinds of conversations. But talk to me in five years. If I’m not in a wheelchair.”
On seven innings, one run in first win too:
“It was against the Dodgers. My game has obviously changed since then. If you play the game long enough you have to reinvent yourself a couple times and work on things and tweak your style a little bit along the way. If not, you won’t be around. Then I was more of a sinker/split guy, occasional breaking ball. Now I try to throw a little bit of everything at them. Try to make something up out there.”
EVAN GATTIS
On catching Hudson:
“He’s got a good idea what he wants to do and he’s got great command with all of his pitches. It’s tough. I’m glad I’m catching and not hitting him. Today went smooth and it didn’t even feel like we were pitching really until we had the runners on third in the seventh inning and we left him there with nobody out. It was awesome. It was a privilege.”
On what was working for Hudson:
“His sinker was really good. We could always go to it. if you didn’t want to throw a fastball in a fastball count, you know you always could because there was a good chance of guys mishitting it.”
On what he thought when Hudson went yard:
“It was awesome. I went nuts. I thought it was hilarious. He almost did twice.”
On the success vs. Nationals:
“We’ve got a good book on them. We’ve already faced them this year. I don’t really know what to expect any game. It was definitely refreshing. It made my job easy.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On vintage Hudson:
“I think somebody is going to ask him what did you do on your 200th victory and he’ll go, ‘Well, I went deep, I hit it double.’ He was good. Eleven ground-ball outs. He was on his game today. It’s good that he did it in front of the home crowd. Good for him, good for the team. We are excited.”
On if surprised he did it in style with the home run:
“No. It doesn’t surprise me. He has fun playing the game and we really enjoy playing behind him. He’s fun.”
On Hudson’s night:
“I’m glad he did it here at home, not only for our fans but him and his wife Kim do a lot of stuff here for charity, and back home in Alabama. Good for him.”
On getting out of seventh after leadoff triple:
“He was as good, about as good as I’ve seen him pitch. I don’t think he labored the whole game. He was fun to watch. Good for him. I know Chipper had some milestones last year, but this for me might be one of the most fun ones I could sit back and enjoy.”
On him wanting to pinch hit now:
“Yeah I know. He told me, you know if I needed a triple to hit for the cycle, I was going to take this last at-bat. OK, you got it.”
KRIS MEDLEN
On how much fun to watch it:
“It’s not. He talks about it all the time. How good he is at the plate. Yeah I mean, like I said before, I don’t know if people around the league consider 200 a big deal, but when you look at it, nowadays, the game has changed with innings pitched and all that stuff. 200 is a huge deal. For him to be able to do that is insane, wow. When you think about averaging it out, it’s 20 wins a year for 10 years, or however you want to do it, it’s just crazy to think about, especially beating Pedro (Martinez) and Randy Johnson and Cy Young award winners in the American League. He’s earned every single one of them and I’m sure he’s not done so.”
B.J. UPTON
On Hudson’s milestone:
“To see him grind out these last couple starts. We came up a little short. I think things happen for a reason. He could have got it on the road but it didn’t happen and he comes home to do it in front of the home crowd in a place where he’s been for 10 years and in front of his family, and the day he had at the plate too, it’s icing on the cake. Really happy for him.”
On if felt like it was his night:
“You know what, just from the jump. We jumped out to an early lead and he went to work. Huddy was Huddy. He knows how to pitch and we got that lead for him and he didn’t lose it.”
NATIONALS 3B CHAD TRACY
On Hudson:
“He beat us single-handedly, on the mound and the plate. The guy can pretty much do it all. He’s been doing it for a long time, and it was pretty much vintage Tim Hudson tonight. He got a lead early and just came after us and got us to beat that sinker into the ground and when he needed to get a big out or strand a guy on third, he broke out his whole arsenal and did the job.”
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