Braves quotes after Saturday’s win against Dodgers

**KRIS MEDLEN

On pitching so well and hitting his first homer in what was his hometown ballpark as an L.A. suburban kid

“Every time I pull up to this stadium in the cab or the team bus, it just brings back memories. I mean, my dad or my uncle would take me to games. I would watch Dodger games (on TV) with my grandma. Just old stuff. It brings things back. I mean, it couldn’t have been a better day for me today, and most importantly we got the win, which was awesome. But for me to hit my first home run here, Cloud 9. I mean, I’m kind of speechless. I’ve had dreams of doing that FOR the Dodgers as an infielder, but I’ll take it.” (laughter)

When was your last homer before tonight, junior college?

“Uh, batting practice in Danville? (laughter) I mean, I don’t know. Yeah, college. My last real home run. But like I said, for me to do it here, in front of some family, and my wife flew in. She always tells me to ‘get her a home run,’ so I got her a home run, I guess.” (Actually, he hit one in Double-A that he apparently forgot about.)

Did you think it was going out?

“I thought I might have hit it too high, and thoughts are going through my head as I’m running to first base, like, ‘ball doesn’t fly here at night,’ and all that. I stopped at second to make sure it went over. It was a crazy moment, and ended up being the difference in the game, which is the cool part.”

On his recent pitching improvement, including no earned runs in 13-2/3 innings over past two starts)

“My last start I made an adjustment between innings. I felt myself kind of stay back over my back leg, which kind of helps me stay on top of the ball. I wouldn’t say I feel like I did last year, but I feel more consistent than I had in my first five, six, seven starts this year.”

On getting out of jam after leadoff double in sixth (got Ethier to fly out to center for second out with runner at third, not deep enough to test B.J. Upton’s arm)

“I knew I may have needed a punchout. I’ve faced Ethier a few times now and had a good feel for what he’slooking for, how he approaches me. B.J. made a really strong throw, which I think helped out. Just a big moment in the game where I knew I needed to make some pretty good pitches because (pitch count was climbing). I didn’t feel like I had wasted pitches, because guys were fouling stuff off and putting some good at-bats together, including (pitcher) Fife. Overall I felt great, but I looked up at one point and didn’t realize I had that many pitches, because I was still feeling pretty good.”

Medlen did the Chipper “I love you” sign with his hand to his family as he scored on the homer

“I Chipper’d my family, yeah. I just made that a verb, Chipper’d.”

“I mean, Bryce Harper does (the hand sign Chipper made famous) now, right?”

**FREDI GONZALEZ

on Medlen’s big night

“Med did a nice job – 6-2/3 innings of shutout baseball, hits a home run that kept us ahead. I just found out when I came in here that it was his first career home run. Good timing on his part.”

Seemed like his changeup was really on tonight

“He had a lot of good stuff working. I was tempted to leave him in there for that last hitter, but I think 115, 116 pitches was about as far as I felt comfortable taking him. But the rest of the guys did a terrific job. Varvaro came in to get that last out, and the combination of Avilan and Walden did a nice job in the eighth inning, and if we don’t throw that ball away it may be a 2-nothing game. But anway, it was a good win. We still haven’t swung the bats – we get nine hits or seven hits, but we still haven’t put a crooked number up in I don’t even know how long. So we’re due with that.”

Were you concerned the first-inning wasted scoring opportunity would haunt you as night went on?

“Well, yeah, it’s always in the back of your mind. These guys over here have a pretty good pitching staff, so you didn’t want to get into those type of games. You want to get your starter out there and put a big number up (behind him), but we didn’t do that.”

On Justin Upton’s first-inning bunt

“He did it on his own. We haven’t been scoring any runs, and good for him. It was a bunt for a base hit (attempt). The third baseman was giving it to him a little bit, and he tried to take advantage of it.”

On Medlen turning corner

“His pitches are getting a little crisper. But Medlen, I think, is one of those guys who is victim of not getting enough run support. Because whatever he is (3-6 record), is he under a 3.00 ERA after today? (2.87.) That’s the sign of a pretty good pitcher who’s not getting any support.”

On offense

“We had some people on base, we just can’t get that next hit.”

More on Medlen homering

“To hit a ball out here at night, it’s a tough place to hit. I’m sure tomorrow he’s going to come in a say he hit it 550 feet. I think it just barely got over. I don’t know if Roy Hobbs over there (Dodgers rookie right fielder Yasiel Puig), he might have been able to catch it. The Natural, that’s what I’m going to call their right fieler.”

On Puig being on deck when Kimbrel struck out Ellis to end the game

“Leave him right there. I didn’t want to face him. Any day you feel pretty good that Kimbrel can do the job, but I think everything’s going pretty good for (Puig) right now. Infield single there in the eighth inning… But anyway, game’s over. Enjoy it for a little while and then come right back tomorrow.”

**DAN UGGLA

On Medlen homer

“He stole my thunder (ha ha). No, that was cool. Every pitcher wants to hit a home run. It’s something cool that he’ll remember for the rest of his career and his life. It was fun to watch.”

And he did it on a night when he pitched well, too

“I know. He was really on his game tonight. He battled his tail off. He was making pitches and hitting homers. He was fun to watch tonight.”

Uggla on having a couple of big hits in the past week despite his struggles

“I’m just going to say, yes, OK. I’m going to be positive and keep working. I know what my numbers are. I know they suck, but I’m going to continue to get better and continue to battle, and just focus on the next day.”

On the win after losing first two games of the trip and series

“Huge win for us. We’ve been struggling on the road all year. The last two games have been great games, we just came up on the short side of it. But to get back in the win column is huge. You never want to start a road trip or losing three in a row any time.”

On the Braves’ starting pitchers’ recent tear

“Our starting pitching has been the backbone of this team. They’ve been so consistent. They’ve kept us in ballgames and just done an amazing job, going deep in games, taking a little stress off our bullpen. They’ve been unbelievable.”