**B.J. UPTON
On busting out of his long slump
“It’s a start. I’ve been working hard all year, and I’m finally starting to see some consistent results. Our season’s not over. Just going to keep playing, keep working hard and sticking with what I’m doing.”
On having a big-game reputation early in career for some Tampa Bay postseason teams, possibly do it again?
“I just stay the course, not try to do too much. We’ve got a very good ballclub. It’s not going to be one guy every night. Just so happened that tonight was my night, I guess.”
On keeping head up despite the long slump and strikeouts first two at-bats tonight
“It’s the game, man. It’s baseball. Things like that are going to happen. You just keep at it, keep grinding. My teammates have been behind me all year. They haven’t given up on me, and that’s a good part of it. I’ve had their support all year, and it’s meant a lot to me.”
On the at-bat that produced his game-ending single
“I saw two sliders and a fastball. The pitch I hit was a slider. He just left something out over the plate, and I didn’t miss it.”
On the team’s character, bouncing back after the latest injury to Heyward
“We have guys that step up. With this team it’s not going to be one guy. When we need somebody to step up, it just seems like that’s what happens.”
***FREDI GONZALEZ
On it being a good night for the Bossman (B.J.)
“Yeah. He’s had three or four of these games now he’s starting to heat up a little bit, which is a good time to start doing that. He had what four hits, Chris Johnson got four hits. We pitched well again. We’re not even going to talk about Minor unless I bring it up but he was outstanding and our bullpen did a heck of a job to hold them to no runs the rest of the way.”
On viewing B.J. as the kind of player with big-game capability as in the past
“Yeah he’s always, the first couple of months of the season he’s had tough months but nobody remembers when you did in April, May and June if everything goes well and we go where we want to go and he continues swinging the bat, that’s what he’s going to be remembered by. Those are good things.”
On what reaction from teammates in dugout says about B.J. and how he’s regarded by teammates
“Yeah you know what, I’ve got no complaints with him about that kind of stuff. He’s a good teammate, a good person, a good human being, and the guys like him, the guys pull for him.”
On wasting earlier scoring opportunities, thinking it might come back to haunt them
“Well I think at one point we had left a small village out there. In regulation it was like nine or 10 guys on base, and had some situations. You always think that way. We didn’t get that add-on run, those kinds of things are going to come back and haunt you. It didn’t today; our bullpen was really, really good.”
On wanting to get BJ and Uggla going for stretch run
“Yeah, Danny didn’t get a hit but he got two walks and a hit batter, he got on base, and I see some good ABs, good swings at the ball, so hopefully like I said, nobody remembers what you did the first three or four months on the season if we get to where we want to get.”
On Elliot Johnson’s defense in left field
“He was outstanding. I’ve never him play, especially I’ve never see him play the outfield. He was really, really good. If you didn’t know that that wasn’t his primary position, you would walk in today and you’re thinking this guy is a pretty good left fielder.”
On team’s character bouncing back after another injury (Heyward)
“It’s good. We’ve had some tough stretches. It shows some character. We know we’re going to have some injuries down the stretch; everybody does. And the teams that can survive those injuries are going to be there at the end, and I always say that and we’ve had some help from our own minor league system. Some of those guys who have come up have stepped up, some of the guys who have been here and done a good job.”
** MIKE MINOR
On his performance
“Shaky first inning. I feel like after that it was pretty good. I made some bad pitches to Ruggiano and Stanton, and they took them the other way for home runs.”
On his teammates picking him up tonight
“There were a lot of plays tonight where balls could have dropped in and we made diving plays, and the bullpen had my back, and B.J. comes up big with the home run. Pretty much the whole team had something to do with this win tonight.”
On team responding to another injury (Heyward’s broken jaw) by reeling off another winning streak
“I’ve said it before, a lot of guys just step up. We’ve had Elliot Johnson come in for a week and a couple of days, and he’s already shown – he’s made some plays, had some big hits, had that triple for us one day, and right away made a difference.”
On bullpen coming through again
“Every time we get late in the ballgame like that, we turn it over to the bullpen and it seems like they close the door. They just wait on our offense to come around, and that’s what happened again tonight.”
On teammates remaining confident in B.J. despite his season-long struggles
“As a team, we look at him — every time he goes to the plate, we feel like he’s right on it, that he’s about to get a hit. And even some nights where he hits the ball hard, he has nothing to show for it. But a lot of people look at it as, he went 0-for and struck out or whatever, but as a team we look at that and we see hard-hit balls, we see base hits every now and then, and we see walks. And his defense shows up every day.”
About the Author
