NEW YORK — Braves quotes from Hector Olivera, Matt Wisler and Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday’s 6-2 win against the Mets.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wisler’s performance
“He was good. What, a career-high for strikeouts? He pitched aggressively. The only pimple, and A.J. talked to him about it, was walking the guy leading off the eighth inning. With Granderson it’s not hard to do, because he doesn’t swing at anything that’s off the plate. You’ve got to throw the ball over the plate to make him swing. But I thought (Wisler) did a tremendous job. And we scored some runs, had some added-on runs with Garcia coming off the bench. Those are two big runs there.”
On difference for Wisler after a rough first inning
“I think it was just command of his fastball. And he threw a couple of breaking balls, a couple to David Wright that buckled him in his second at-bat. But I thought his command of his fastball and his breaking pitches were pretty good today.”
On Peterson homering after struggling for a long time
“I don’t even know when’s the last time we hit two home runs in one inning. That was a big four-spot there, and then again to add on late in the game in the ninth inning, Garcia off Clippard. And Vizcaino, it goes unnoticed a bit, but that’s a heads-up play (in the ninth).”
On Olivera showing the pop he has in his bat, crushing a 2-0 fastball
“We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it in batting practice, now it’s just a matter of (doing) it in the game. But that’s one reason we put him in the 2-hole, between Nicky (Markakis) and Freeman. We’ve seen it two or three times where they’ve walked Nicky to face him, and I think he’s come up big (in those situations). I know in Philly he came up big with a homer, and again today.
“But in that spot you’re going to get some pitches to hit, because they don’t want to put him on and mess around with him with the breaking ball and face Freeman behind him. But that was nice to see the pop there.”
On chance to get a series win against someone other than the Phillies
“It’s a good feeling to do that. We’ve got another young pitcher, Williams Perez, going tomorrow. Hopefully he can dazzle them again and give us an opportunity to win a series and get on the bird (to Miami).”
In retrospect, could moving Wisler to bullpen for one game against Nationals have been a wakeup call for him?
“It could have been. But you know what, I think we needed him to be in the bullpen that series, because we played a four-game series against the Nationals and we needed all the pitching. But I think it’s a conversation that Roger and myself and I know A.J. has had with him, just a young pitcher that needs to learn to do some stuff. It could have been both, but we didn’t do it intentionally to be a wakeup call.”
**MATT WISLER
On how he’s improved since being sent to the bullpen for one game
“This time it’s me attacking them instead of them attacking me. I think it definitely sent a message to me — obviously let me know I can’t just not perform up here, but I think just getting up there, changing my mentality on the mound and getting back to what it used to be, is helping me a lot.”
On being angry at himself after the eighth-inning leadoff walk, last batter he faced
“Yeah, you can’t let the leadoff guy in the eighth get on. That started a rally. Luckily my bullpen guys picked me up. But I can’t let that happen. If I learned anything tonight, it’s that if I’m cruising like that, the situation with Granderson coming up, he’s a guy I’ve got to make swing. I can’t let that happen, I can’t walk a guy in that situation.”
**HECTOR OLIVERA (through translator Alex Cotto)
On crushing the 0-2 fastball, the third fastball he got in that at-bat
“The plan’s always the same – just look for a good pitch to drive. It just so happened I got a good pitch where I could extend my arms, and the home run came.”
Said a while back you wanted to gain confidence, does something like this do that?
“When I talked about gaining confidence, what I meant was by playing more games. And I feel as I’ve played more games, yeah, it’s starting to build some confidence. But if I just keep working, it’ll all take care of itself.”
“Every week, every day I gain more experience, more confidence. This is just continuing to build toward next. I’m just taking it day by day, but every day I’m on that field I’m getting the experience I need.”
On hitting a three-run homer in a game against a first-place team, score tied at time
“Bottom line, we aren’t chasing a playoff (berth), but we are here to play hard, and we’re not here to give games away. We’re going to play hard and work hard and try to win every game we can.”
