Braves quotes from Gavin Floyd, Chris Johnson, Gerald Laird and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday’s 2-1 win against the Cardinals.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Gavin Floyd
“I tell you what, he was really, really good. For the first time in almost a year. I think he was a little nervous the first couple of pitches he threw. But I didn’t expect that (kind of performance), I expected a guy that was going to scuffle through five, six innings first time out, all that kind of stuff, hadn’t been in competition for a year, coming through all that stuff. But he sure passed with flying colors. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
On Floyd throwing 104 pitches
“Probably about four pitches more than we wanted him to throw. But he was good. The only hiccup if you want to nitpick was he walked the pitcher. But we’ll give him a pass on that, because he competed his butt off. I can’t wait till five, six days down the road, watch him go out there again.”
On Chris Johnson getting a big hit after struggling so much
“He got a couple of hits, but that’s a big one there (go-ahead RBI). I think Justin coming back after the four-strikeout game last night, coming out and getting us right on the board with a home run and got another hit, it was nice to see. I thought yesterday the offense, even though we lost the game, we saw some good progress. And hopefully this type of game will get us going. We’re certainly in position to win the series, and that’s what we always ask for. We’ve got Wainwright going tomorrow against us, so we’ll go out and battle him and see what we come up with.”
“We tried to add on a little bit, first-and-third with Gerald (bunting) and that didn’t materialize. I can’t complain. Hopefully we come out tomorrow against Wainwright and keep swinging the bats.”
**GAVIN FLOYD
On his performance and how good it felt
“I’m just very grateful, first to God to have this opportunity to play baseball again and to get back out there. Just thankful for this opportunity. It felt good. A lot of emotions, a lot of excitement this whole process, leading up to it and then getting back out there. Knowing that I feel healthy and then to have a chance to get back out there and not only start for the first time but try to get us back on the winning side and try to keep us in the game. It was a big win for us today and hopefully we can continue to get after it tomorrow.”
Felt some nerves early?
“Definitely. You always wonder what’s going to happen and how you’re going to feel. There’s a hight level of excitement and energy. My concern going it was to try to bottle that up as much as possible, to try to stay calm, stay focused, and one pitch at a time, be the best I can focus-wise and let the team field the ball.”
How can you make six minor league starts, have some pretty mediocre results, and then come up to the big leagues and appear to be in midseason form?
“You know, even the (rehab) starts where I didn’t necessarily get the results, I felt like I was there. Just a learning process. Even this start was a big learning process, this whole thing, just going through a lot of things in the game on a big-league level, there’s different preparation, you’ve got to continue to stay focused and use your instincts out there, just trust you’re abilities. I felt like this whole process, things have been progressing and getting better every time I threw, so I was confident in what I could do. Gerald called a great game back there.”
On where this start ranks among his all-time highs
“My debut was probably my top, and there were probably a couple of other ones. But this is up there. Just to be able to have a chance to play baseball again and throw again and be healthy, definitely will rank up near the top. Hopefully this will be a start to another chapter in length in my career.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On how it felt to get a game-winning RBI after recent struggles
“It felt good. It was a grind, I tell you that. It wasn’t easy. The guy (sidearmer Pat Neshek) is funky, he’s nasty. Anybody who’s watched me lately knows that that was just a battle between me and him and me trying to get something in play. I was able to finally stay on the ball and kind of go the other way a little bit, which was nice.”
What were you looking for in that situation?
“The ball.” (Laughter.) “No, I’m being serious. When a guy is that funky and he’s throwing sliders and kind of spinning sliders and fastballs that are still pretty firm, it’s a ‘see-ball’ approach and try to stay short and kind of do my thing and try to use the other way (to right field) to my advantage, and I was able to do that.”
“I knew in the at-bat when I had fouled the ball over our dugout that I was letting the ball get deep and staying on the ball. Early this year my front shoulder has been my problem, I’ve been pulling off the ball and that kind of brings everything around the ball. So that was a good sign. Hopefully I can keep it going.”
On Gavin Floyd
“It was amazing. I’m so happy for him. I can’t imagine how tough it is to come back from a surgery like that and to kind of prove to yourself that you can still be out on a big-league mound. And he did that and more.”
On JUpton’s long homer
“He crushed that. Man, that ball was way out of here. That was nice. It was also good for Gavin, getting a little breather and getting a lead.”
On importance of win
“It’s big. I mean, we weren’t panicking too much. I know we lost seven in a row, but we don’t have a lot of panic in here. It’s still a pretty relaxed group. We knew we needed to come out here and get a win and turn it around, but it’s not really that serious just yet, it’s too early.”
**GERALD LAIRD
You expect that kind of performance from Floyd
“He looked pretty sharp in the bullpen. Before the game you could tell he was a little amped up early on, but then as his warmup pitches went on he seemed to get more comfortable. And I just tried to make it as smooth as I could the first inning, just kind of stay with his fastball, try to get some outs early with some command pitches that he has good command, so he could settle down. And he did a heck of a job.”
Mostly fastballs, cutters and a few curveballs?
“The two pitches that he has the best command with to get ahead, and then obviously his curveball is his out pitch. We started some hitters with back-door cutters and fastballs, and the main thing was just to kind of get him in a rhythm there, kind of feel comfortable, because I’m sure he was amped up to be out there after a year.
“It just goes to show you what type of guy he is. He worked his tail off and it paid off.”
On blocking some early curveballs in the dirt
“I expected it. I just wanted to make sure that I showed confidence in him. It was the first time I caught him, but I just tried to do the best I can in case he needs to spike (the curveball) later in the game, so he knows I’m back there to get the job done. But other than that, he made my job real easy tonight. He located real well and he made pitches when he needed to.”
