**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Tim Hudson
“He was really good. There were a couple of situations where we scored, and boy he came right back and got us back in the dugout to get some at-bats against Strasburg. I mean it was a five-, six-pitch inning.”
On the win
“I thought we had a good approach against Strasburg. We hit some balls to the warning track straightaway. He kept us in the big part of the ballpark, but I thought there were some balls that were hit really well. It was nice to add a run in the ninth inning to give us a little cushion. Made a couple of nice defensive plays behind O’Flaherty, and then Kimbrel shut them down.”
On Gattis homer
“Threw him a high fastball and he turned on it. That’s why he hits fourth. He can do that.”
“His swing is short, there’s not a lot of moving parts to it. Good fastball hitters are going to chase balls up in the strike zone, and sometimes they’ll swing through them. But I think he hit one in Miami, and he hit one here that he could catch up to. If it’s high, it better be higher than high. But his swing’s so short, and when he makes contact the ball’s got a chance (to leave the ballpark). I thought it was just going to barely clear the wall and get into the bullpen, but I think it went over the bullpen. That ball just stays hit.”
“We did a nice job baserunning. Danny did a nice job on a ball in the dirt to get in scoring position. We stole a couple of bases. How ‘bout the play that Heyward made in Huddy’s last inning?”
More on Heyward’s diving catch to end seventh inning
“Wow. You breathe easier now, instead of having a man on second base and you’re facing the meat of the order. Good baseball. Good game all around.”
On Heyward hustling to beat out double play and drive in run
“Those guys at the top of the order, him and B.J. and Justin for that matter, are hard guys to turn two on. But Jason, you look at the boxscore and it’s 0-for-2 or 0-for-3 or 1-for-4, and the batting average is not good, but Jason beat you today defensively, he beat you on the basepath, he just beat you in plain out-hustling. That’s a great sign of a winner. Everybody wants to hit .280 and .300 and all that, but all those guys can beat you in different ways. It’s why they’re real good players.”
On Gattis’ catching
“He does a great job. I think Roger does a great job with him, gives him a gameplan. Gerald helps him. He (Gattis) does a lot of stuff. He cares. He’s not an offensive guy that just cares about hitting. He cares about calling a game and taking care of the pitchers, but I think Roger does a great job not only with him – he’s going to spend more time with him, being a young catcher – but just overall, Roger is terrific preparing a gameplan for these guys.”
On Hudson facing Strasburg
“Huddy’s one of those guys that just enjoys pitching. If you just focus on him and didn’t focus on him facing the Nationals, you would swear that he’s pitching in his backyard, throwing to his kids and trying to get them out. I bet if you ask him today, he had more fun getting two hits and running the bases than he did pitching seven innings.”
**EVAN GATTIS
On homering on a third-pitch fastball, after fouling off first-pitch fastball
“Justin took second before a pitch was even thrown, right? So there was a runner on second and a zero-zero game, so really (he was thinking) more than anything just try to put the ball in play. That was my second at-bat. I just felt like I didn’t have to be that long, really just try to use my hands and barrel the ball, and just try to put the ball in play and score a run.”
In a slugging mode right now?
“I don’t know, maybe.
On his four homers in eight games
“Good pitches to hit.”
On Hudson
“He had a good idea of what he wanted to do against them. We had a good gameplan going in and we stuck with it. The solo home run doesn’t hurt anybody. He was really frustrated that he didn’t make a better pitch right there. I kind of thought it was the wrong call for me, in hindsight. But hindsight is 20-20.”
What pitch do you think you should have called?
“Maybe a fastball in, or sinker away, something like that. Four-seam in, that’s kind of what we’ve been doing with him. So we went with a cutter trying to get it in on the hands, and he got to it.”
On working with Hudson
“I really feel comfortable with, like, his pitches and what they do, and just the effect of going toward different sides of the plate. It’s good to complement the two-seamer with his cutter, and then also to have a slow breaking ball with guys like Harper.”
On winning another series, having fun?
“Definitely. It’s a lot of fun. Glad we got the win yesterday, it was huge. And a big win today. Just playing good baseball.”
Came back from the high of last night to win again this afternoon
“Everybody was happy we won, but nobody was too excited yet. Last night everybody was, ‘get some sleep, have a 1 o’clock game, let’s go at ‘em again tomorrow.’”
**TIM HUDSON
On Fredi’s comment about him having fun hitting
“Well, I’m not supposed to hit, so it’s always exciting to be able to throw a couple of knocks out there, especially against a guy throwing that hard. I turned it around. What can I say?” (laughs)
On winning against Strasburg and clinching another series
“It was a big day for us. We knew coming in it wasn’t going to be easy. We were fortunate to win last night, and we knew today was going to be a tough game. But I think they probably came in with the same attitude as us, that it was going to be a hopefully well-pitched game for both sides. I think it was. Couple of key breaks for us. Obviously the error that kept the inning going. Gattis hitting the homer there.”
On Gattis
“Gatty’s been great. Got on top of that high fastball. Guys have been trying to pitch him up in the zone. He’s a smart hitter. I think he’s starting to make some adjustments and realizing what people are trying to do to him and taking advantage of some misktakes.”
More on the win
“It was a great win for us. Great insurance run there at the end, to go up by two. Going to the ninth inning you never know what can happen with a one-run lead. It was nice to get that two-run lead.”
On supposedly needing to be near-perfect when pitching against Strasburg
“I don’t think you have to be perfect, at all. He’s a kid. He’s going to make mistakes, just like he did today. I think it’s definitely not going to be easy, a walk in the park, there’s no question about that. But this is the big leagues. You have big league hitters on both sides of the field. You make pitches, you get outs. And we made a few more pitches today than they did.”
On the defense
“It was great, man. That play J-Hey made there in my last inning was great. I made a bad pitch to LaRoche, a four-seamere that got more plate than I wanted, and was fortunate to get it back. Not only did I get it back, but J-Hey made a great play on it.”
“In close games like today, well-pitched games on both sides, I think it’s the little things you have to do to win the game. They made one mistake defensively that cost them the game, and we were pretty solid all day.”
Gattis seems like he’s been able to juggle hitting with catching duties and do both pretty well
“We’re trying to make it as easy on him as we can as pitchers. He still doesn’t know anything yet about the hitters. He’s learning the hitters. But he understands how we like to pitch. He’s trying to pick our brains, understanding what our strengths are and what we like to do in certain situations. I like him back there. He receives well, he blocks the ball well, he’s good back there around the plate. And he ain’t afraid to throw down a 2-0 changeup. I mean, he puts down fingers that ordinarily I might not necessarily throw, but I’m like, ‘What the hell? Let’s throw it. Let’s see what happens, and get some outs.’”
Think he might have a good career in front of him?
“I think so, for sure. I don’t think there’s a person in major league baseball that’s not pulling for him. I know we all are. His story’s pretty remarkable. He’s came through a lot. I’m pulling for him. I’m hoping when he catches me that I can make him look as good as I can. He’s that kind of guy. He wants to learn, he’s eager to get better, and he has some talent. It’s not a fluke.”
On getting lot of different contributions from bench guys and others
“That’s what championship-caliber teams need to do. You can’t rely on the same people every night. You need to rely on your bench. You need to rely on your starting rotation one through five. And you need guys in the bullpen to step up, not necessarily the setup guy and closer every night. It’s a long game and everybody has to pull their part.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far this year. It’s still early. We’re just fortunate to get off to a good start and not get behind an eight-ball too much. Hopefully we just keep it up, and when we get healthy and get some guys – obviously getting B-Mac back is going to help us some. I think guys are starting to put together some pretty good at-bat who might not have started the season like they wanted to. Hopefully it’ll translate into some production later on.”
