Quotes from the clubhouse following Tuesday's 6-4 victory over the Miami Marlins.
**JUSTIN UPTON
On hitting some balls to opposite field in recent days
“Any time you’re staying on the ball and hitting it to the big part of the field … you want to stick with that approach, and it’s working out for me right now.”
Feel different lately?
“You never feel the same during the season. Hit the ball at one point, and the next time something else might not be clicking for you. I wouldn’t say it feels the same.”
But you feel better now than did for most of past couple months?
“Yeah, for sure.”
How good does it feel to have a night when you and your brother both got it going?
“It’s good, man. As the season progresses, it’s been different guys at different points. You’ve just got to kind of ride it till you’re clicking on all cylinders. It’s nice to have us both swing the bat well tonight.”
On trying to go into All-Star break on a good note
“For sure. We’re going home for four games and we’d love to finish strong. We’re playing another good ballclub (Reds), but we’re at home and we need a few of those to go into the break obviously on a positive.”
Nice seeing B.J. get some hits, some sac flies, after what he’s been going through?
“Yeah, it’s good to see. Even with the way it’s looked, that’s even more positive – he’s stung a few balls at people on this road trip. He’s had two hits taken from him in the last two days. Just got to keep swinging it, and they’ll fall.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On big night for Uptons
“They both had great at-bats. B.J. only gets two hits, but he hit the ball hard every time up. Justin had some good at-bats. We got some hits and manufactured some runs a little bit.”
On Teheran
“I thought Julio did a terrific job after the second inning. We put him behind the eight-ball a little bit, but I thought he did a great job minimizing his pitches the rest of the game. After that second inning, I’m going, ‘Oh, boy, here we go. He’s going to be out after the fifth or sixth.’ But he did a hell of a job getting us deep in the ballgame.”
Justin tonight looked like he did the first few weeks of the season?
“Yeah. It’s a long season. I know we’re always looking for more, but there’s going to be some ups and downs, and you’ve got to be patient with the guys. They’ll be fine. He’s starting to swing it like he did early in the season, and you see other guys starting to have good at-bats. Maybe not getting a hit in the boxscore, but hitting the ball hard. Those are good signs.”
On Teheran keeping pitch count down
“I think he just went after them. The second inning wasn’t his fault. We misplayed a ball behind him that was kind of an in-between hop to C.J. It could have been a double-play ball. (Teheran) did a nice job. He pounded the strike zone. Him and McCann did a good job throwing the ball over the plate, and mixed the pitches well. We needed that type of outing today after going 14 innings (Monday) and having two or three guys unavailable to pitch, or who we didn’t want to have to pitch.”
**B.J. UPTON
On him and brother getting it going
“I think in the last week or so, we’ve just been swinging the bats well as a whole. Justin swung the bat well tonight. We had some other guys come up with some hits when we needed them. Whenever they answered, we came right back and scored some runs. And Julio kept us in the game, kept them at four runs.”
On finishing well going into All-Star break
“Yeah, as a team. I’m starting to feel better at the plate. Actually, a lot better. I’m just hitting the ball hard, and hopefully I can take this right into the break and have something to build on.”
On potentially getting a three-game road sweep, first one in nearly three months if you do it
“Hey, we’ve got to play them, might as well try to win it. Like I said, I think the goal is to finish strong going into the break, and kind of pick up where we left off.”
On hitting the ball squarely in four of his PAs tonight, even if only two hits
“Like I said, I’ve been hitting the ball hard. They’re not all going to fall, but I’m starting to see the work pay off, and definitely feel a lot better up there. So I kind of know where I’m at now, and I think in the future I’ll know how to get that feeling back if I lose it.”
On Justin hitting more opposite-field drives lately
“If you see any hitter start to hit the ball hard the other way, they’re very close. He’s been doing that lately. He’s definitely cleaned some things up, and he’s trying to keep it simple.”
**JULIO TEHERAN
How’d you feel tonight
“Good. I wasn’t trying to, like the last game, get deep in the count. I was trying to get ahead of every hitter, and that’s what I did.”
On the second inning, the three-run homer after error earlier in inning by CJohnson
“It was a big mistake that I made, but I was trying to keep my head high and battle, and keep the team in the game…. It was big mistake. I was behind in the count. I know the catcher got mad at me; I got mad at myself. Just tried to keep battling (after that).”
On keeping pitch count down
“I was trying to put the ball in play, let them hit it. I know they were swinging, and I was just making pitches. And they got the ground balls.”
Plan to keep pitch count down that way today?
“Plan from the first inning was to throw the ball and make pitches, let them put the ball in play.”
“I told the bullpen, I’ve got this game, to let them rest. (Smiles.) Then after I came out, they said, I thought you were going nine innings? I said, sorry, I tried.”
