SAN FRANCISCO — Braves quotes from Mike Minor, Jason Heyward and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday's 5-0 win against the Giants.
**MIKE MINOR
On what went so much better for him tonight
“I felt like last week I didn’t throw many breaking balls, and tonight I mixed it up pretty well. For the most part I didn’t think they knew what was coming. We went in and out, up and down, and used the breaking pitches.”
On throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes
“Any time you get ahead of guys it sets you up for the whole at-bat.”
On getting some run support
“I figured it was going to be a close game just because they had good pitching, from the last time we played them. But it was really nice, we got a couple of late runs there. Jason with the slide in there was pretty nice.”
On bouncing back from bad start
“My first start wasn’t bad, and then my second start was. But like I said, (in that second start) I feel like I steered away from our game plan that we had before we went out there; we didn’t execute it.”
**JASON HEYWARD
How in the world did you get past Posey’s tag to score?
“I don’t know. Some athleticism there. I wasn’t going to quit on the play. I saw the ball going home, and he walked toward me (to make the tag). I didn’t think he was going to walk toward me. I was going to slide regardless, out or safe, and I just made that kind of move.”
Did you know right away he missed tag?
“I didn’t feel him touch me at all, and I heard from his reaction he didn’t think so either. And then once I saw on the replay I was like, ‘Ok, I was definitely in there.’ The umpire looked like he saw it pretty clean and the review didn’t take too long.”
On the move to get past Posey
“It was a reaction. It’s not the way you draw it up. I by no means would like to try it again, as far as me running home and seeing the ball fly in from right field that far ahead of me. But just a hustle play, and it worked out.”
On Gattis triple
“It’s that kind of ballpark. Where Gat hit that ball, anything can happen out there with those bricks in that alley.”
On the win
“Good team win. Pitching was solid. Here you’re always on edge because you feel like they can put together one good inning and be right back in the game. So pitching was huge, defense was huge, lot of timely hits. Just keeping it simple. We really kept it simple tonight. Not to say we always try to hit homers, but we didn’t go up there with that mindset, and we were able to just get knocks and keep guys moving around the bases and manufacture some runs.”
On advancing to second base on J. Upton’s fly to center before scoring from second on Freeman single
“I knew I needed to get to second base right there and get into scoring position with Freddie coming up.”
On how the play at home might have been different with the old rules about catchers blocking plate, etc.
“I think a lot of stuff would have been different. Not sure, I don’t know if he would have walked toward me the way he did. It was just weird. I knew immediately that I couldn’t hit him, and I was kind of shocked that he walked toward me, but he was doing what he felt he needed to do. The only thing I had going for me was that he didn’t know how I was going to react there. Again, it just worked out in our favor. Everyone was cautious there, but the thing is, no one got hurt….
“If he would have just stood there and just catch the ball and wait on me to get there, it would have been a lot harder to make any type of move, but he came at me and there was a little wiggle room.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Minor’s performance and the win
“Mikey was good. He pitched in on some right-handers, threw his breaking ball over for a strike. He also got out of some jams, and then our bullpen did a nice job coming in there with Thomas getting a couple of big outs there in that one inning and Varvaro doing a nice job. And we were able to add on (runs). Those guys scare me over there, they don’t give any at-bats away. When you play the Giants or Bruce Bochy’s teams you’re in for 27 outs. They’re not giving anything away.”
On Gattis triple, Freeman scoring from first
“Good for them. Gattis, that must have been the longest it’s taken for someone to get to third base (on a triple). Big Papi takes a little bit longer for home runs. That was a nice AB there, hitting the ball to right-center.”
On Heyward not just scoring with great slide, but getting to second on J. Upton pop-fly to center before Freeman double
“Those things go unnoticed for people who aren’t paying attention, but he reads the fly ball to center field nicely, gets back and tags and gets to second base. And then somehow he gets his big 6-foot-5 body to go about 5-2 and gets by Posey.”
On replays
“Yesterday the replay got us, and today we got two runs with the replay. At the end of the day the system worked, it’s just awkward how you get to that spot.”
More on Minor getting ahead of hitters
“He got strike 1, breaking ball was sharp, threw it for strikes, and in his third outing he’s off that spring training mode now. This is what we saw from him last year. Hopefully he can continue to give us these kind of quality outings.”
On Posey missed tag of Heyward
“I really couldn’t see if he got him on the back, but I thought he missed him right off the get-go. Again, I don’t know how a man 6-5 got himself by Posey like that, but the replay showed that he did miss him.”
