PHOENIX — Braves quotes from Alex Wood, Freddie Freeman, Jonny Gomes and Fredi Gonzalez after Monday’s 8-1 win against the Diamondbacks.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Alex Wood’s performance and the win
“He got himself in a little trouble there in that (fifth) inning, but only gave up one run. That’s really good. Offensively, we added on some runs late in the game and made it simpler to pitch. But I thought that inning when they had the bases loaded and one out, our defense did a terrific job hitting the cutoff man there, and Simmons getting the ball and doubling up the runner. For them to only get one run, it was good. And it was nice to see him pitch himself out of that jam in the eighth. (Runners on) first and second, nobody out, here come the big boys, and he was able to get the ground ball, and Goldschmidt that humpback liner to center field. It was a really good outing by Woody today.”
Had to sit a couple of long innings, and it didn’t seem to affect him
“No, it didn’t. And he also helped himself with the bat, got himself a couple of RBIs to get us out the door.”
On the offense
“It’s a nice hitter’s ballpark, and it was nice to come in here and get the win and keep the momentum going. We talked about momentum is your next day’s starter, and we’ve got three in a row now and have Miller going for us tomorrow. Hopefully that’ll keep going.”
On Freeman’s three homers in four games after slump
“We’ve seen that, we’ve talked about it. You worry about a prolonged slump with him, and he gets out of it and gets hotter than a firecracker.”
On Simmons getting back in an offensive groove after a rough patch
“He’s fine, I don’t even want to talk about him. Every time we talk about him he’ll go 0-for-14 or something. But the approach – we talked about it in April, and he has kept it now for two solid months. The approach to hit the ball up the middle and to the right side. Good for him.”
On Todd Cunningham laying out for a catch in the gap
“We knew that going in, we always talk about how good of an outfielder he is. He can play all three (positions). He’s a plus defender out there, and he showed it today. That’s nice to have if Maybin goes out for a game or two, you can run TC out there and he’ll give you good quality defense.”
On Peterson continuing with the extra-base hits, after mostly singles earlier
“You know what, he’s been as steady as you want.”
**ALEX WOOD
On his performance in third straight win
“I commanded the fastball pretty good and had my changeup going. In this dry weather I kind of had a hard time getting my breaking ball going tonight. But I moved (pitches) in and out pretty good tonight, and me and A.J. were on the same page.”
On helping self with a two-run single
“That’s always nice to get a knock, but I think the more important thing was just extending that inning. I don’t know how many more pitches he threw after me, but that definitely probably played a big role in his early exit. Any time you can do that as a pitcher, get the other guy’s pitch count up, that’s all you can ask of yourself.”
On being on a good run lately
“My last two starts I’m starting to get everything together, so to speak. Now it’s just more about getting that consistency, the repeatability, to where I don’t have anything to work out anymore. For me, that’s really the biggest thing. And also, me and A.J., every time we go out together that’s one more time that he’s caught me, and that always helps, too.”
Still feel strong in the eighth after 113 pitches?
“Yeah, I had a little extra rest going into L.A. last week. I had some extra soreness after that, after not throwing for 10 days. But no, I felt good.”
Nice to that much run support?
“How about the defense? A couple of the ones they hit hard were finally right at people. I’ve been having a little bit of rough luck with balls just finding holes and dropping, so it was nice to have that great defense we had back there tonight.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On hitting two-run homer a couple of innings after grounding out with bases loaded
“You always want to come up in those situations when you’re in the middle of the order. Obviously I didn’t come through on that one, so I was just glad I got another opportunity and was able to come through.”
You talked before the game about how you’ve always liked hitting here (now .418 average and four homers in 13 games)
“Yeah, I always see the ball good here, it’s a great batter’s eye (backdrop behind center field).”
Three homers in four games, do you feel like you’re getting your swing and approach back?
“I’m getting there. My last at-bat was the one that was where I need to be – 2-2 changeup and I was able to hit it to left field on a line. Hopefully I can keep that going tomorrow against Collmenter.”
On Woody’s performance
“He’s been phenomenal. Eight strong innings for us tonight. Did it with his bat, too. He’s a real hitter this year (smiles). Hopefully he can keep that going in his next start. It’s definitely nice to get the first one (in series).”
Does this look like the Alex Wood from last year?
“Yeah, definitely. He’s freezing the right-handers with his front-door two-seamer. That’s what he was doing last year, and he’s starting to do it now. His changeup was awesome, his curveball. So hopefully he can keep mixing and matching and get some more wins for us.”
On being 4-4 on the trip after starting out with two losses at Dodger Stadium
“Yeah, it’s a long season, but when you lose the first couple of games on a long road trip, you want to get back going. It’s definitely nice to have a little three-game winning streak.”
**JONNY GOMES
On the offense finding its stride again, starting to score by manufacturing runs as well as hitting some long balls
“Yeah. We’re past the first two months now, we’ve got some guys kind of coming in their own. And then on top of that we’re kind of seeing the same lineup, give or take a couple of guys. And that is important, to where you kind of get a grasp of what the guy’s doing in front of you, what the guy’s doing behind you, when to take the extra base…. I just think we’re starting to come into our own, 1 through 8 – and when Woody’s hitting, 1 through 9.”
On Wood’s performance in his last few starts
“I faced him quite a few times on the other side. That deception, that delivery. When that change-up’s on, and then again, running the fastball across the plate in to righties, that’s two pretty good weapons.”
On team being over .500 after 51 games, when not many people believed that possible and many wrote you off weeks ago
“Yeah, that was one of our goals leaving spring training – don’t buy into that. You’ve heard me say it, you’ve heard some other guys say it, our goal’s not to be .500, our goal’s not to be a game above .500. Our goal really hasn’t changed since leaving Orlando, that’s getting to October. We had some things to iron out. We played some good D; we didn’t. We hit; we didn’t. Our bullpen did a good job; then it had a couple of hiccups. But I think you’re starting to see some identity getting formed.”
