Quotes from manager Fredi Gonzalez, pitcher Tim Hudson and others following Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the Padres.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Tim Hudson getting in a groove after early struggles
“I wouldn’t even call them struggles, really. Fly ball that was in no-man’s land (left-field near foul line) that hit right on the chalk, that scored a run. Ball that go through the infield scored another one. And then he gave us, I don’t even know how many retired in a row…. Thirteen in a row. Swinging bunt to lead off the eighth. But he was … you felt good about it. I felt good about the whole night.
“We swung the bats. B.J.’s ball, he had a good hack at it, but it didn’t go out. We hit the ball hard a couple of times at people. But it just didn’t happen tonight.”
On Cashner
“He had pretty good stuff. He’s not easy to take hacks at. But you felt like something was going to happen, at least me sitting in the dugout, I did. A one-run game, you felt like somebody may pop one or we may split a gap with somebody on, and here we go. But that never materialized.”
On Padres having lefty to face lefties Freeman and McCann to start 9th (both K’s)
“Right now the way you set up, you can’t split up those left-handers. You know going in that’s the situation, especially when they’ve got two left-handers down there (in the Padres bullpen). That’s what they do. Thatcher and Layne. But you feel comfortable anyway with Freeman and McCann, they handle (lefties). Those (Padres lefties) have done their job the last couple of nights.”
On Hudson going deep in game again, his third straight with seven or more innings
“That’s good to see. When he hits there in the seventh, you feel comfortable. He goes out here in the bottom of the seventh, ‘go get ‘em.’ Because he’s got the low pitch count, second outing in a row, had low pitch count and you give him an opportunity to win the game, because he’s pitching that good.”
Did Justin Upton get in a spot where he didn’t know where to dive or make sliding sort of catch attempt?
“He went a long way for that ball. I don’t know if he took a step back (initially); sometimes the swing will fool them a little bit. But from what I saw, I thought he busted his butt to get to that ball. Two inches the other way it’s foul. And you’re going full speed and you’ve got the wall closing in on you in foul territory. Just one of those things, I’m going to call it no-man’s land.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
What was Cashner doing so effectively tonight?
“He comes out throwing 95, 96 (mph), and he has a changeup he can throw whenever he wants. He’s throwing it 2-0, 3-1. We got him on the ropes that one inning. I grounded into a double play and killed the rally. We’ve got to take advantage of those, and I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”
On Hudson’s performance
“He was great. Probably the one bat pitch, a hanging splitter to Headley. That double down the line, of course that will happen. But he pitched great, and we should have got the win for him today.”
“Hopefully we can get out there and salvage at least one game (in the series finale) tomorrow.”
More on Cashner
“He was able to keep us off-balance. He wasn’t throwing his heater a lot, but you knew he had the 96-97, so you’ve got to be aware of it, and he was able to throw his slider and his changeup. He was throwing off-speed in hitter’s counts, so he got us just a tad out front when he needed to.”
**B.J. UPTON
On Hudson
“He made his pitches. Just a game of inches. Good placement. Not very much you can do without it.”
On his fly out to the left-center wall leading off 7th
“Yeah, I might need to get with the chef, man, see if I can get some more weight put on me or something. Because I hit the one last night pretty well (fly out to the wall in ninth), but the one tonight I hit real, real well, and it didn’t go. It’s how it goes, I guess.”
On his improvement in past week or so
“I’m comfortable up there right now. I said earlier this year that at some point it’s going to turn around and get better, and it’s been getting better. Right now I like where it’s at, and if I can keep it where it’s at, I should be good.”
**TIM HUDSON
On his outing
“You know what, I felt really good tonight. I feel like it’s probably one of more top two or three games, stuff-wise. I feel like I just made a couple of bad pitches and somehow I gave up three runs. They took advantage of them, the homer and the pitch to Quentin, 0-0 (count) with a guy in scoring position. Other than that I felt pretty good. Felt like I was making pitches.
“Cashner was kind of tough. We couldn’t get really get a whole lot going against him, and that was it. Pretty much what it boiled down to.”
The pitch to Headley (home run)
“It was a split, a hanging split. He got it and hit it. It was not a very good pitch, but with two outs I’ve got to make a better pitch to Quentin, too. I ended up piping one down the middle to him.
“Banks had a good at-bat against me to work a walk, laid off a pretty close pitch for ball four. I thought it was closer than it was, but when I look back on it, it was off the plate.”
On his recent improvement
“I feel like the last few times out, it’s been right where I want to be. I don’t have a lot to show for it from a wins standpoint, but if I just keep throwing the way I’ve been throwing the last few starts, it’ll be a good year.”
What were you using to get the six strikeouts during the 13-batter-retired run?
“Just sinkers, and I made a little tiny adjustment with my thumb on my cutter, and that seemed to really make it a lot better over the last few innings. It was a lot harder, a lot tighter, something I was really happy to see.”
On Padres taking advantage
“The ball that drops in there (in left field). I make a great pitch on the leadoff hitter (Cabrera in the third) and he fisted it for a double. Nine times out of 10 that’s a called strike three, he doesn’t swing at that pitch. But he fouled it off with two strikes and had a great piece of hitting. Got to tip your hat right there. But I made some great pitches. Like I said, really only two (bad) pitches, and somehow they got three runs. But you’ve got to give credit where credit is due – they took advantages of what opportunities they had.”
