Braves quotes after Saturday’s win against the Reds

“After the first inning he settled down and did a nice job getting us deep in the ballgame.”

On Hale working quick, letting defense work for him

“He’s a sinkerballer, that’s what you want. You want your defense being ready to make those plays. He did a nice job, and then offensively, Justin and Freeman and Gattis with home runs, pretty much that was it. That was all the runs we needed. But good offensive production by those three guys, then you hand the ball off to Craig.”

On relying so much on long balls, but winning

“You can win. It always boils down to your pitching. Everybody talks about how you score runs, but it always boils down to pitching and catching the baseball.”

More on Hale and getting a lead on Freeman’s first-inning home run

“A kid like that who’s only got six major league starts under his belt, it’s good to help settle him down. But you’ve still got to go out there and throw strikes, and sometimes when the game isn’t close a young kid will have a mental lapse. But I didn’t see any from David at all today.”

On how Hale has improved

“Every time you give him the ball he does something special. His last start in New York he got himself out of a bases-loaded jam, competed and got a bit out. Today he had an opportunity to get the lead and keep it. Those are all learning experiences. You see him getting through all those barriers or hurdles as a young starter.”

On Freeman hitting the high fastball out

“It was up. When he’s swinging the bat good, you can’t throw it anywhere near the plate. Him and Votto kind of remind you of each other a lot. Votto is a little more patient at the plate, but they’re both similar hitters – you throw them a strike and they’ll make you pay for it.”

On B.J.’s 1,000th hit

“You’ve got to tip your hat. There’s not very many people that have played this game a long time and got 1,000 hits. Good for him, and good for him to do it at home also.”

On whether Hale’s performance made the looming rotation decision more difficult

“Let me enjoy the day and we’ll talk about it tomorrow morning.” (smiling) “At 6:30 in the morning we’ll have a press conference and I’ll let you guys know.” (kidding)

“Thank you guys very much.” (ends postgame presser)

**DAVID HALE

On giving up quick run in first

“I kind of settled myself down and was able to go from there.”

What were you doing well?

“My off-speed felt really good today. But the command of my pitches was the main thing.”

On Freeman early homer

“It’s always nice to have some good run support.”

Anything you wanted to see from self in this outing?

“Yeah, come back and have a good one, be able to do it twice in a run. That was nice. And I felt good with all my pitches, that’s the best I can hope for.”

“It felt good.”

Were you in a zone when retiring the last 14

“Yeah, it’s always nice to be able to go with the wind-up the whole time. That helps a lot.”

Feel any pressure, knowing how well everyone in the rotation is pitching?

“Yeah, it’s a little pressure. But I think at the same time, we kind of feed off of each other. It makes each one of us want to go out there and one-up the next guy, and just keep competing with each other. Friendly-wise, obviously. And just keep everything going the way it’s been going.”

Was tonight about as well as you’ve thrown?

“Yeah, I think so. I had command of all my pitches better than I have. In terms of command, I think this is the best it’s been.”

Do you think about how it could be your last start for a while?

“Yeah, obviously that stuff runs through my head. But I try not to let it go too deep. My goal is to come out here and do the best I can, and let things fall the way they will. So we’ll see what happens.”

**B.J. UPTON

On 1,000th hit being a special moment

“Yeah, definitely. Any time you can stay around long enough to get 1,000 hits in the big leagues, that’s pretty cool. All the guys congratulated me. J-Hey told me it was probably going to be a bloop, because of the two balls I hit (hard) yesterday. It was very similar to a bloop, but I’ll take it, and I’ll take the 1,000.”

Nice to do it on night when your brother keeps raking?

“I guess you could say he’s seeing the ball well right now. Him and Freddie have been driving runs in, that’s why they’re in those spots. Hopefully we can keep it going.”

On David Hale

“He had it going. He had all his pitches going. Lot of fastballs, located them well, and he threw his off-speed stuff when he needed to.”

**JUSTIN UPTON

On David Hale

“He did a great job tonight. He stayed off the barrel; that’s the type of pitcher he is. He’s got a good fastball with good movement. He mixes in his other pitches, but does a great job pounding the zone with his fastball.”

On maturity Hale showed after giving up the early run

“He’s not the type of guy to get rattled. He’s cool, calm and collected most of the time. So it’s not surprising to us.”

On three early homers off Leake

“He moves the ball around a lot, so you can’t try to do too much with him. I don’t think any of us did. We just got some pitches over the middle of the plate that we could handle.”

You almost had back-to-back-to-back homers for the second time in a couple of weeks

“We did (do it). One just got taken away.”

On all the homers from several guys in past 2-3 weeks

“We’ve got power up and down this lineup. It’s just a matter of harnessing it and making sure that’s not what we’re trying to do every time up. Try to take our hits when we can, then when mistakes are made we need to capitalize on those. But for the most part, guys are just up there trying to piece together innings and take your hits, take what you’re given.”