EVAN GATTIS
On if he thought he got it:
“No I got jammed pretty decent but I thought I might have enough of it. Just got a good pitch to handle and luckily I got enough of it.”
On what his first pinch-hit AB was like:
“It was good. I was ready. Taking some swings off the tee and stuff like that. They said get ready, maybe catch, pinch hit, something. Just being ready. I’m glad it went the way it did.”
On how many times he’s pinch hit:
“Once in rookie ball.”
On making it look easy:
“Well yeah, 1 for 1. I don’t really have anything to compare it to. I felt like it was a good matchup with him and what he has. That’s what I’m looking for is what he was throwing so. I’m glad I got to see two pitches before that for balls, so that helps. Fortunate. Lucky. I’m glad I got it on the barrel enough.”
On Fredi not being sure from his vantage point it was out:
“I didn’t know it was going to hook like it did. Luckily it did. If it didn’t maybe it wouldn’t have gone out.”
On circumstances of his rookie ball pinch hit:
“We had two catchers and we always usually hit like 3 and 4 and 4 and 5, and we only had two so if you’re warming somebody up in the bullpen, no bullpen catcher, so it’s like warm up the catcher, run down there, if Delgado gets out or I get out one of us is going to have to go warm up the guy in the middle of the inning and then run back to the bullpen. It was tough.”
On being warm for the game then:
“Then I was yeah. I didn’t take any practice swings, so my manager got onto me about that. I was like well I never take practice swings. Grounded out to shortstop pretty sure.”
On if this one felt different from previous four homers:
“No, it was nice. It was a day off, pretty much. Just nice, it was kind of relaxing come into the game. Nice, relaxed but ready. Nah, it doesn’t feel any different.”
On conditions with ball flying out of the park for both teams:
“It was good. We’re a pretty confident team. I think that does well for us. We’ve got a lot of power guys, so if anything it’s probably in our favor.”
B.J. UPTON
On team lift with his leadoff homer:
“That’s the goal every day. I think both sides pitched pretty well. Again we come up with some timely hits and put together a pretty good inning.”
On Gattis’ first pinch hit at-bat:
“You know what? He just keeps getting better. This guy, not a lot of young guys are able to go out there and play every day and produce the way he’s been producing. It was his first off day in a while and to come off the bench and win it with a pinch hit home run the way he did today says a lot. A lot of guys don’t know how to handle that situation, especially in crunch time. He was able to go up there and stay within himself and get a good pitch to hit.”
On Justin staying within himself too, still on homer tear:
“You know what? I think that’s a credit to our lineup and guys that we have on this team. I think everybody goes to the plate and knows that they don’t have to get it done that somebody else could. That takes a lot of pressure off guys. We’re just going up there nice and relaxed and putting good ABs together. Julio continues to keep us in games. Obviously as a competitor I’m sure he’d like things a little bit different but at the same time he’s keeping us in ball games and that’s all we can ask. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
On getting to see his brother do this:
“It’s been fun to watch. I’ve been watching on it TV, catching it after my games, but to be here and see it live it’s a pretty cool thing to watch. But he’s still little brother, so I ain’t going to give him too much credit.”
On hitting home runs in the same game:
“We’ve hit home runs on the same day before. The game-tying and the walk-on is going to be pretty tough to top but yeah, it’s definitely pretty cool.”
On if it’s job to keep it real for little brother:
“Oh absolutely. I always keep it real with him. He’s just got to know that he’s still little brother and I’m big brother. Nah, he’s swinging the bat well right now and the team is kind of feeding off that.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Gattis’ homer:
“I think it’s the first pinch hit appearance and it’s a home run. Yeah that’s going to be all over the wire if it’s not already. The situation there it’s the eighth inning and he’s your backup catcher. You feel like you can take a shot up there. you felt like with anybody you had on the bench at that time, he was going to give you a pretty good at-bat. He wasn’t going to chase that sinker in the dirt. And he got a good pitch to hit. He didn’t hit it real well. It got him on him a little bit but he’s such a big strong guy that he hit it out. O’Flaherty and Kimbrel did a nice job. Varvaro gave us a good two innings in the middle of the game. Lot of good things, Laird two sac bunts, Danny made a couple good plays defensively, drew a couple base on balls and it looks like B.J. is starting to heat up a little bit.”
On having Pena on deck before sending Gattis up there:
“Well when you bring in your backup catcher that’s always in the back of your mind. It makes it a little bit easier that (Blake) DeWitt is a guy that could something if something bad happens to Laird in that situation. That same situation in the fifth or sixth you may not do it but in the eighth inning with the game the way it was, take a shot at it.”
On if Laird hadn’t advanced the runner if he’d done it same way:
“I couldn’t tell you. It was one of those things, in the moment you make that decision.”
On BJ’s improvement:
“He’s getting better. You see him now from the beginning of the year he’s not swinging at those balls in the dirt. He’s swinging at strikes. Home run to lead off the game today and a double. You see those at-bats getting better and better every single time. We’re progressing well with him.”
On Teheran:
“Teheran was OK. Some balls up over the plate. He had people on base almost every inning. I don’t think he had a clean inning the whole game so subsequently his pitch count was up in the high 80s. I think he did a nice job in the fifth though, getting Martin to roll over in that situation. He made a nice pitch to Barmes. In the grand scheme of things for a young pitcher to get out of that situation, it’s a step in the right direction.”
On sending him up for a bomb:
“You want a good at-bat. Hughes had a nice sinker. He was making some of our guys look bad. In the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘Well, we’ve seen him being patient, Gattis,’ so make him get the ball up and he did. When he hit it I didn’t think it was enough really because I thought he beat him a little bit but he’s such a strong individual he got it out there.”
