CINCINNATI — Braves quotes from Mike Minor Justin Upton, Gerald Laird and manager Fredi Gonzalez after the Braves’ 12-inning, 3-1 win Friday against the Reds.
**JUSTIN UPTON
What a night, huh?
“Yeah, it was interesting. Mikey pitched really well, obviously had the no-hitter broken up. It would have been a shame for him to lose that one. He pitched way too well. So we finally came back and got it.”
When did you notice he was throwing no-hitter?
“I didn’t know until I looked up probably in the sixth or seventh inning, and realized it. Then I started getting nervous. It was fun. It was fun to be a part of.”
On the home-run at-bat in 12th
“He made a very good pitch on me the first pitch, fastball down. Then the next pitch was just an off-speed pitch up the zone that stayed up for me…. Once I saw the flight of it I kind of had an inkling it was going to stay (fair) but you never know.”
The way you’re going, that’s situation you want to be in I’d imagine?
“Yeah. You always want to be in that situation. You want to be a part of the win. Freddie got on, the rest is history I guess.” (Smiles)
“We weathered two innings of (Aroldis) Chapman and the back of their bullpen, and we finally got it done.”
**MIKE MINOR
Does it feel like all the work you did earlier this month is paying off?
“Yeah, a little bit. I still see it as three games. Three good games in a row. But it’s definitely different, definitely progress from basically the whole season how things were going.”
From where you were three weeks ago to this….
“Yeah, just three weeks ago I felt like I couldn’t get anybody out, couldn’t throw any pitches that had any depth to them, and the fastballs were kind of over the middle of the plate all the time.”
On coming so close to a no-hitter, how did it feel out there?
“It was different, I guess I felt more focused. I felt like this the last three games, but Gerald was putting down some good signs and we mostly just stayed with two-seam fastballs a lot. I don’t think we threw a slider until the fourth or fifth inning, and we threw two changeups all night. So it was mostly just two-seamers and curveballs. But we just tried to see if they’d make an adjustment. That’s why I got a lot of ground balls and some weak-hit (balls) there, and a couple of balls I left over the middle of the plate still got caught, luckily.”
When did you start to notice or think about fact you were throwing a no-hitter?
“It was about the fourth inning when I noticed there was no hits up there, but I think my main concern was the 1-nothing game. I felt like, hey, come on, let’s get one more, let’s get one more. That’s what contributed to the walks, kind of pitching around guys because it wasn’t really the no-hitter, it was more the 1-nothing game and I feel like we need to win every game right now.”
On Justin being able to do that in the 12th to give Braves the win
“That’s awesome. Because we could have been playing all night, we could have lost, and Justin came up big, like he’s been doing all year.”
On changes made with mindset during the 10-11 days between starts, when rotation turn was skipped at beginning of month
“I just kind of revamped everything, threw away everything and just went out there like my old self last year. I don’t know, the confidence, I don’t really think about my previous starts. I think that’s what I was doing earlier in the year, I was kind of leaning on those starts and hoping I didn’t repeat that. And it kept on going all year, one bad start after another. And so now I don’t really care anymore, I just go about my business and be confident and make pitches.”
On what Fredi Gonzalez said a couple of week ago
“Fredi said let’s just see what we can do from now until the end of the season, with the record and ERA and stats like that. It’s kind of showing now how bad I was doing. He just said hey, let’s start fresh right here and finish the season strong.”
What did you do physically, the grip changes you made in some pitches?
“I talked to Ervin Santana about some different grips and stuff like that. They weren’t much different, so I went to the bullpen (to work on them) the next couple of weeks and try to throw them, and they came pretty naturally and got more movement on it. So I guess I can kind of throw a little bit of my success on him for showing me the little things.”
Was it your curveball, or two-seamer?
“Two-seam, slider, and he showed me his curveball but I wasn’t comfortable with that, the way he threw it. (The other changes were) just kind of different, I never really had seen guys hold the ball that way. And when I put it in my hands he just kind of told me where to put my thumb, where my fingers go, where to release it. Just kind of pretty much walked me through it. It was a lot easier than just trying to guess and hoping the ball would have more movement. It had more depth.”
On team playing so well right now when it absolutely has to
“This is the time where you need it, really. Early in the year you need those games (too), but it always comes down to the end where everyody’s scratching and clawing and trying to get those wins. And we’re all clicking right now – offense, defense, pitching. You name it. Let’s go have a good time.”
**GERALD LAIRD
On Mike Minor’s outing
“It was good. Mikey’s been making some adjustments. Obviously everybody knows he’s been struggling early, but this last couple of outings he’s made some adjustments in the bullpen. He’s working on the sinker, and tonight it seemed like everything came together for him. So it’s nice to see him getting some positive innings and some positive stuff going his way, so we can get him back on track.”
When could you tell he had better stuff than usual?
“About the first or second inning, he really wasn’t falling behind (in counts) and he was able to locate that sinker down and away. And then when did fall behind he was able to make a good pitch down with the sinker. We talked about making adjustments, and we said let’s just stay with it until they make an adjustment, and it seemed like it carried us all the way through the night. Whenever he got into a 1-0, 2-0 count, he was able to just put that sinker down and away, he was taking a little off of it and they were just trying to (hit it hard) and getting a little too big, and they they’d roll things over and pull off balls.”
How big could it be to have him back for the stretch drive?
“Huge. We know how good he is, we saw it all last year and the year before. This guy was one of our top-of-the-rotation type guys. Obviously he didn’t get off to the start he wanted, but I kept talking to him about it and said you could erase that first half of the season with a good down-the-stretch run, and his last couple of outings have been great. Getting him going could definitely help us get where we need to be, and that’s postseason.”
On how sweet it was to pull that out for Minor and the team?
“Yeah, for sure. When you play that many innings and you battle. Honestly, you’ve got to tip your caps to our pitching tonight, to hold that team to two hits and one run in this ballpark, just says a lot about the guys we have coming out of the bullpen and about Mikey’s performance tonight.”
On J-Up’s 12th-inning homer
“That’s just the secret to our offense. That’s what we preach and that’s what everyone knows we do. If we hit home runs, we’re going to win games. And right now we’re hot and our big guys are swinging the bats good. We couldn’t get any runs across tonight, but our big boys are putting big swings and driving in some clutch runs when they need to. That’s what we’re going to need, and hopefully he keeps it going in September.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Mike Minor’s performance
“He was outstanding. Took a no-hitter to the eighth inning, and his command was outstanding. His stuff was electric. He’s rattled off three in a row now. He’s carrying that momentum, and confidence, you can see it building with every start, every pitch. It was an excellent start.”
At what point did you start to notice he was throwing no-hitter?
“You know fans with the jinx. About the sixth inning somebody (in the crowd) was, you know, hollering at him, saying ‘Hey, you’ve got a no-hitter going!’ But we knew. As a baseball club your guys pay attention to what’s going on. But he was nails.”
On Justin Upton winning it in 12th, seems appropriate way he’s been going
“Yeah, he’s swinging it it right now. He is on fire, and it doesn’t matter if it’s lefty or righty. And Freeman’s getting on in front of him and making it difficult for people to pitch around (Upton). And C.J.’s having good at-bats. Those three guys are swinging it really, really well.”
On the bullpen
“It was really good. Walden came in in that situation in the eighth inning, got out of a jam. We made some pitches when we had to. We got ourselves in some situations. I think they had runners on first and second (with one out in the 11th). I think Billy Hamilton was on every inning after the ninth. Every time I looked up I thought he was on base. But yeah, we did a nice job.”
On holding off using Kimbrel until the save situation in 12th
“We were hoping not to use him multiple innings, we don’t like doing that. And tie game on the road, we’ve tried it I think a couple of times now and only in certain situations do you feel like you need to bring him in in those situations. Hale did a nice job. He really did a nice job. It was a good win and a well-played ballgame.”
On Chris Johnson’s two terrific plays, the guy whose defense has had some detractors in past
“There’s no perfect players. Maybe one; the center fielder for Anaheim (Mike Trout). Other than that, you know, people are going to complain about arm strength or defense or lack of foot speed. You know what? Chris Johnson gives his heart, he gives his energy, and you know you can lay your head on the pillow every night knowing he’s going to leave it on the field for you.”
On how the team responded in late innings under pressure
“I thought our club played really, really well today. I mean, all of them. Up and down the line, even some of the guys coming off the bench, they busted their butts out there today. For Mikey – everybody knew he had the no-hitter going – and for the win.”
