TORONTO — Braves quotes from Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Julio Teheran and Fredi Gonzalez after Friday’s 8-7 win against the Blue Jays.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On how crazy the game was with all the home runs
“Man, oh man, I tell you what. Seven total, between both teams? I mean, I’ve never seen a park where right-handed hitters – I mean, I know we’ve got good right-handed hitters, but hitting the ball to right field and straightaway center. I’m not so sure I wouldn’t want that grass to stay up a little higher, if the ballpark is going to play this small.”
“Julio just left some balls over the plate. I was watching them on the replays of the home runs. He’s better than that. He’ll make his command better than that. But I’m proud of our club offensively, we were able to score some runs moving the line, and then Jonny and Freeman there late in the game came up with some big home runs. For me, Freeman was just a matter of time. You start to see the swings getting better and better. He missed a couple early in the game and then finally got a big one. That’s a big two-run homer there in the (eighth) inning.”
Julio’s OK, nothing wrong with the knee or anything?
“No, just missed with his fastball really.”
Not many times you’ll get out-homered 5-2 and your starter gives up four homers in five innings, and you win
“Well, you know what, we did today. So they can put it on the StatsPass and somebody later on can find it if it happens again. But we did a nice job. We swung the bats. It’s nice to see Peterson get a base hit there – a triple actually – and Simmons. Up and down the lineup, Nicky’s getting hot. Freeman’s starting to swing the bats. Some of the other guys – Pierzynski, CJ – I think everybody contributed, really.”
On the high turf not affecting your biggest hits because they were hit so far to gaps or over fence
“Yeah, in the air they got to the wall, or the track. Or over the wall. It’s nice to see some of the guys start to swing the bats and get hot.”
On Gomes vs. Cecil matchup, Jonny’s had some good career success against the lefty
“Yeah, I could read. There’s an opportunity, you’ve got this weapon sitting in the dugout, Jonny Gomes, who traditionally wears out left-handed pitchers. And you get an opportunity to get the matchup that I want in that situation, and we use it. We took advantage of it. And good for Jonny Gomes, he sits around for eight innings at that time, but he’s ready to go, he’s prepared and ready to go. And you call his number, he’s going to give you a good at-bat.”
What’s the key for a guy to be able to do that?
“A guy who’s done it before, a guy that knows his role, a guy that, when you watch him play, he’s intense, he’s in there cheering for his team, for his teammates, but he’s ready. You talk about (his role) with him all winter, and this is one of his situations. We said, you’re going to get every left-handed pitcher that we face, and you’re going to get some selected right-handers; we don’t want him sitting around for five or six days. And you get an opportunity where the matchup is really, really in your favor, you take advantage of it.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
Feel good to come back from deficits again and again, pull out win in slugfest?
“Definitely. The last couple of games have been tough, we haven’t been hitting the ball very well. It was nice to come out and get some hits tonight and put some runs on the board and definitely out-slug them a little bit.”
On the inning with Simmons and Peterson getting the two big run-scoring extra-base hits to the gap
“Yeah, definitely, Petey came back after a couple of rough first at-bats, and he clutched up huge. Simmons with the huge two-out RBIs. That’s the name of the game, get the big hits, and we definitely did today.”
On Gomes’ coming in to start 8th inning with huge pinch-hit homer
“He didn’t sit down the whole game. It seemed like he was fired up, ready to go, and then they called his name and he went and did his job. He doesn’t want any recognition because he expects to do that; that’s his job. But we’ll give it to him.”
What’s he like in the dugout during the game?
“Well, he’s always in your way because he’s never sitting down. No, but he’s awesome. He’s always fired up. It doesn’t matter if we give up a couple of runs, he’s up there yelling, ‘get some runs,’ and then we get some runs, ‘play defense’ – he’s always screaming in the dugout, always keeping us loose, always keeping us fired up. Obviously he comes in, gets the energy back up with his go-ahead homer in the eighth inning.”
How impressive is it to be able to hit a pinch homer in that situation?
“A lot of people think it’s the hardest thing to do, to come in and pinch-hit. He came in, got a big pitch to hit and put a good swing on it. He stays ready. When you’ve been around the game a long time, you know what to do. He knows what to do to get ready for an AB, and he definitely did tonight.”
**NICK MARKAKIS
On Gomes’ pinch-hit homer
“I’ve been watching him do that for years now. He’s pretty damn good at it. It takes a lot of focus to be able to come in and pinch-hit. It was kind of a no-brainer matchup right there, and he put a good swing on it.”
On Braves showing they can win these kind of games, too, not just ‘small ball’
“You know coming into this park with that lineup, it’s going to be tough and you’ve got to score some runs. You’ve got to score runs against those guys. It’s tough. We matched them tonight. They scored, we scored, and we ended up getting some big hits, especially with two outs.”
**JULIO TEHERAN
Fredi said it was nothing to do with health, just making mistake pitches was the problem with four homers allowed?
“Just mistakes. I’m just happy to know I battled and kept my team in the game, and we won the game in the end.”
On Braves’ continuing to come back after blowing leads or falling behind early
“Yeah, that’s good when you know your team is supporting you, even when it’s not your night. They’re just supporting you, trying to tie the game or just come back. That was the part that made me a little bit upset, but other than that, just trying to keep battling, and I did today.”
Giving up leads or after your guys tied it, that’s what upset you?
“Yeah, when I got the lead I just wanted to hold the other team, but I wasn’t able to. Even the last one I got, I got in a little bit of trouble. But just keep battling.”
So the knee is perfectly fine, no issues with it?
“Yeah, I didn’t feel anything.”
