FREDDIE FREEMAN
On if you’re going to be exhausted after playing four games….
“No matter what, it’s great. It’s a great road trip. Just coming out here after that long day yesterday and getting another win, and Ranger was unbelievable today, (BJ) with the big hit and the bullpen shut it down.”
On not too often give up two homers, come up again and get him out with one pitch:
“Yeah right there. That’s the game of baseball. He hits a slider out. He hits a heater way out. And then gets that one right down the middle, I guess that’s the best pitch sometimes. As hitters you might see it too good and just want to get too big on it, and roll it over. Ranger had a couple stressful innings and got some big double plays. And he battled today and Gerald did an amazing job behind the plate too.”
On seeing offense coming together without relying on the homer:
“This four-game series our offense really did come together. We got a lot of hits with not a lot of homers. We had two home runs this series and we scored a lot of runs, with a lot of hits, and hopefully we can keep that going.”
B.J. UPTON
On going 8-3 on longest road trip:
“Any time you can go on a long road trip like that and come out the way we did, that’s always good. We played well. We won some close ball games and that’s all you can ask for.”
On coming through at key times in this series:
“Just going up there, not trying to do too much and take what they give you. It’s been a different guy in different spots basically this whole road trip. That’s the big thing. Just play the nine innings and try to chip in any way you can.”
On what a trip like this does for team:
“You just keep grinding. You definitely like to try to come out .500 and to leave this road trip over .500 is good for this ball club.”
On doing it without relying on the home run:
“Normally a little out of character for us and you can kind of see that we haven’t really hit that many home runs but I think we’ve pieced together some hits when we’ve needed to, especially with runners in scoring position. Good baserunning. The bullpen’s been great. Starting pitching has been great. It’s all coming together.”
On Harang working out of jams:
“He’s a veteran pitcher. He doesn’t panic. He made some pitches when he needed to and we like playing defense behind him because you know he’s going to be around the strike zone a lot, and I think you can say that about all our pitchers, they definitely keep us in the game.”
AARON HARANG
On being economical with his pitches:
“The last time I faced these guys I was missing off the plate and getting real deep in the counts. Same with the last game down in Houston. So I knew that I had to come out and try and get ahead early and be a little more pitch efficient.”
On being the kind of damage control:
“You’ve got to do what you got to do. It all comes down to executing that pitch when you really need it.”
On pitch to Byrd after the two home runs:
“I knew he was going to probably, I knew had a good idea he was probably going to come out and try to be aggressive. So I was able to get the fastball down in the zone a little bit, that time get him to hit it on the ground.”
On going 8-3 on the longest trip of the year:
“Oh yes. They came into our house right before we took off and kind of knocked us back a little bit. So we had to go into Washington, we got off to a hot start and they nabbed two from us, we went down played Houston strong and then came here and continued it on.”
On mindest when get in those situations, with runners at third base:
“The biggest thing is just executing that pitch, really focus on going one pitch at a time, not letting your mind wonder and get out of control, know that you’ve got to execute the next pitch and if that one doesn’t work, then so on and so forth.”
On not forgetting the base knock:
“My blazing speed also helps (laughs). BJ really hit that ball well. I didn’t realize how well he hit it. I took off running and watching Revere’s reaction I knew that if this gets over his head I’ve got to go.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On a great weekend and road trip:
“Unbelievable. You can’t ask to win a four-game set is incredible. We pitched well the whole series and we swung that bats and had some timely hitting and to go on an 11-game road trip and go 8-3 that’s really, really good. And proud of the guys. Coming in here and playing four games in three nights and doing it in that fashion, pitching and timely offense, you can’t ask for anything more than that.”
On Harang escaping multiple jams:
“Back-to-back innings he got the 5 unassisted 3 double play in one and then Ryan Howard. I don’t know what I was going to do if Howard would have got on, with Byrd on deck, because has had a pretty good day with him today. But he gave us every opportunity to win and battled through some tough innings. He’s a wily veteran.”
On team effort offensively:
“B.J. gets us on board with a two game triple. And the way we were pitching we only had a couple guys in the bullpen available. And Harang gave us seven strong innings and we were able to give the ball to Kimbrel. Simmons had a terrific eighth inning there and after you give the ball to Kimbrel you feel pretty darn good that we were going to win the game but those guys over there just kept battling, and probably the last guy you see at the plate was the last guy up, Chase Utley. He has a knack to come up big in those moments.”
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