MIKE MINOR
On his outing:
“I thought I made decent pitches and if they were hit a little bit harder a little bit softer, it would have gone the other way. But then they got guys on, they made contact and they made hard contact when they needed to drive guys in and that’s what killed me.”
On Giants’ two-strike hitting, tough lineup:
“Yeah, I felt like I had a lot of guys 0-2, 1-2 and I couldn’t put them away. Hunter Pence kept battling me. They just seem like they always get some kind of wood on the ball that does something for them, whether that’s a slow roller that we got today for a base hit or there were a couple down the line. And then they had some hard-hit balls too though.”
On his teammates to give them some of their own medicine:
“It was a good team win. Came back, battled back, never gave up. Craig did a good job keeping us in there and that last inning, put in Gattis got us a walk kind of got us started.”
On B.J. getting results:
“I feel like I’ve seen it for a while now. They just haven’t been falling in there or he’s just been missing it off the end or just getting jammed. Lately we’ve just been seeing him square balls up and really showing all the work that he’s been putting in. He’s been working ever since Day One. He’s been struggling the first couple months but he’s never given up, he’s never been down on himself or whatever. He just wants to pick up the team and lately it’s been showing how much work he’s been putting in.”
B.J. UPTON
On if that’s as good as he’s felt on a ball this year, that first home run:
“Yeah, definitely this year. I hit it pretty well. I’m not one to look at them, so I’m not really sure where it landed. But I know it hit it pretty well.”
On connecting on some low pitches from Gaudin:
“I was just see the ball, hit the ball, wherever it is. Just take what they give me and put a good swing on it.”
On if feeling like himself again:
“Starting to get there, starting to feel a lot better. It’s definitely coming along. I feel like I’ve got everything covered up there so hopefully I can just keep it where it’s at.”
On the biggest change:
“I’m just on time. That’s it. I haven’t really changed anything. I just got my timing and balanced. You can hit when you’ve got those.”
On coming back against the Giants:
“They’re a scrappy ball club, and we knew that with them coming in and obviously with the series we had there. We knew what we were up against and we just stayed in the ballgame and put together some nice ABs in the ninth and Freddie came up with a big hit for us.”
On Posey’s flyball:
“It was just hit right at me and I just couldn’t figure out which way I wanted to turn so I ended up just going straight back on it and tried to make a play.”
On watching Justin take that 3-2 pitch from Romo in the ninth:
“That’s a tough pitch to hit anyway, frontdoor like that. He’s seen him before. He was in the division with him, so he had a pretty good idea what he was trying to do.”
JUSTIN UPTON
On familiarity with Romo helping in that situation:
“Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times so I know what to look for and I could be patient with him. I spit on some good pitches and drew a walk.”
On just a hair inside:
“It’s a close pitch but I obviously think it’s a ball. Pitchers want that pitch. It went my way. That’s the inches in the game. It can go either way.”
On called third strike to end the game Wednesday in San Diego:
“You can’t dwell on those things. Every day is a new day. You’ve just got to try to capitalize on those situations and we did today.”
FREDDIE FREEMAN
On breaking the losing streak:
“I don’t know how many lineouts we had in San Diego but you could probably count it on two hands, so we’ve been playing great, things just didn’t go our way. Things kind of went our way in the ninth there.”
On good at-bats, after last night:
“Bumgarner pitched great yesterday. That’s just one of those things but we’ve been having great at-bats. Like I said in San Diego we’ve been hitting the ball really hard. We never gave up. In San Diego we came back in the ninth a couple times, we just fell a little short. Today we were able to come out on top.”
On B.J. getting going:
“I think that’s what Chipper would call a mammo in his first one. That thing was crushed and to see him go right center, it’s awesome to see. Hopefully that gets him going and carries us a little bit more.”
On feeding off the crowd:
“Bigtime. It’s nice playing in front of a packed crowd. Hopefully it doesn’t only happen on Saturdays and Fridays. We’ll see if we can get them out here on the weekdays too but it’s a lot of fun when they’re all standing up and doing the chop.”
On doing what Giants do, a pesky team:
“Yeah, they’re one of the teams that do not strike out. They go up there and put up great at-bats and wear pitchers down. That’s what they normally do. Mikey battled all game and kept us in it and then our bullpen did what the bullpen does, they shut them down and the offense were able to get a couple more at the end.”
ANDRELTON SIMMONS
On how funny things can happen when put the ball in play:
“I was trying to keep the rally alive. I was trying to make contact, trying to stay out of the double play. Somehow that ball found its way through. Yeah, you’ve got to make contact for something like that to happen, to get a chance to get on base.”
On that’s what the Giants do:
“Yeah they’re a scrappy team. They always battle every at-bat, hit the balls down the lines, they go deep into counts. They’re a tough team. I see why they’ve been World Series champions two out of the last three years.”
On giving them taste of own medicine:
“We’re kind of used to coming back from behind. I think we’re pretty good at it. We battle. We battled the whole day. We hit some balls really hard. Unfortunately we didn’t play good defense but we stayed in the game. We tried our hardest. Everybody left everything they had in the game.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On team showing fortitude today:
“Well, we had good at-bats. We really had some good at-bats throughout the whole game and then that last inning there. We’ve been talking about putting the ball in play, things happen, with two strikes. And you felt pretty good with Justin at the plate and Freeman behind him, that we were going to get it done. Gattis drew a big base on balls there. At the time it seemed harmless. Then we put a couple really good at-bats together after that. Mikey did a nice job. If we get a shutdown (inning) any of those two. We scored one, they scored two. We came back and scored again, and I think they scored three. We get any of those shutdowns we’re not facing this situation. He did a nice job. We made some mistakes behind him on some balls. Bullpen did a terrific job. Some of the guys are starting to swing the bat, starting to heat up. B.J. got two home runs and getting good at-bats, stolen base. Starting to play good baseball.”
On B.J.’s results:
“It’s good for all of us, for him especially. His hardwork is paying off. Sometimes you’ve got to be a little patient. Good for him. Two big home runs there.”
On hard hit balls:
“It seemed like it’s been two weeks since we won a game. it was good to get a win like that at home, especially with a really, really good crowd. Go get them tomorrow.”
On Minor stranding runner at third in his final inning:
“He’s been terrific doing that, minimizing damage, or don’t let the inning get away from him. You see a young man that’s becoming, or has (become) a major league pitcher. He doesn’t let that stuff bother him. Even after we make an error, I think Sime made an error behind him, a ball that ate him up pretty good, and he settled down and did his job.”
On using Kimbrel when behind in the ninth:
“Well he hasn’t pitched in a while. It’s been seven days. Why not pitch him in that situation one run down and keep it there. And we were at home so you had the luxury of doing it there. And he did a nice job facing Pence who earlier in the game got two RBIs against us on balls that were with two strikes, he put it in play. A sac fly and a bloop single.”
About the Author
