MILWAUKEE — Braves quotes from Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Alex Wood and Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday's 5-2 win against the Brewers.
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On his two-homer night, first homers in 20 games against Brewers
“I don’t know what it is, I’ve always struggled here at Miller Park (.110, 4-for-36 before Tuesday). I was obviously due. I’ve always seen Lohse pretty good and he left a couple up for me tonight and I was able to get them.”
On Wood
“The way he pitched and the same with Julio yesterday, it was just nice to see that. Our bullpen came in and shut it down like always. The offense, it’s nice to get some runs on the board.”
On Heyward’s go-ahead homer
“Jason’s been doing that since spring training. It’s nice to see him carry it over and have two big knocks today.”
On supporting Wood
“It’s just nice to go out there and give Woody a little cushion. We battled with the offense for five or six innings and were able to get some runs for him. The way he was pitching, he didn’t really need many runs.”
On breaking 22-inning scoring drought vs. Brewers
“The last three or four years we haven’t really done well against the Brewers here at Miller Park. It’s nice to get the first one out of the way. As an offense we knew we weren’t going to get shut out all 162. We let them sweat for the first 15 innings.”
**JASON HEYWARD
On using homers to break scoring drought
“Yeah, glad to see our lefties do something tonight. Yesterday we felt good. We came out today, got some pitches to hit, we hit some tough ones, got some good ABs all around. Kept making him throw the ball over the plate. Lohse is a good pitcher; he hits his spots, mixes it well. We did a good job getting to him.”
On Wood keeping you in game until you could get offense going
“Oh, yeah. It’s great to see him keep his composure there. He wants the ball every time. He wants to be on the mound for us, he wants to go out there and get every guy out he can and be in the game as long as possible. And that’s the best way to do it right there, put that first one behind you and go get the rest of the guys.”
On Freeman, who’s done that at Colorado and some other places but not here
“I’m tired of hearing him say, ‘I don’t hit well here,’ or ‘I don’t feel good right now.’ Save it. (Laughs.) That’s the kind of hitter he is. When he’s up there not thinking, he can react and put a lot of balls in play and do it with some authority like he did tonight.”
**ALEX WOOD
“I had a pretty good mix of all three pitches, and just got some ground balls, and they made some great plays behind me. CJ made a few at third, and Simba made one in the hole. I mean, it’s nice having those guys back there to help you out.”
On getting past the first-pitch homer to Gomez
“You don’t have much of a choice after first pitch, first hitter of the game, you know? It’s one of those things where he’s a swinger, he’s a heck of a hitter, and he was aggressive early and went out there and got ahold of one, that’s for sure. I had to settle down after that and try and make some pitches.”
On keeping game close until offense could put some runs up
“As long as you keep us within striking distance, we’ve got eight guys in the lineup that can go out there and put the ball out of the park at any time. So you just have to go out there, do damage control and have some quick innings, keep us in the game. You do that and you’ll have a chance to get a W.”
On Kimbrel striking out side in ninth
“He’s pretty unbelievable, man. And it’s fun to watch. Just any inning when he comes in, you pretty much know the game’s over. I mean, he’s that kind of pitcher. So it’s exciting every time he steps on the mound.”
On settling down after first couple of innings
“I didn’t really feel like I had my legs under me, even in pregame warmups and those first couple of innings. For me, everything works off my fastball, so if my fastball command is kind of erratic, it affects everything else. So fortunately I was able to kind of find it there in around the third or fourth inning and get going from there.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wood after 1st inning
“First pitch, really. Other than that, he scattered some hits and did a nice job with a pretty darn good hitting right-handed lineup, and Weeks hitting seventh. But that’s a pretty good right-handed-hitting lineup, dangerous, and he did a nice job. Got us deep in the ballgame. He pitched so well I thought about running him back out there (for the eighth inning), but first outing I didn’t want to take a chance getting him over 100 pitches and facing that lineup for the fourth time in his fourth game.”
On the three homers
“I thought we had some good at-bats. How about Uggla? He only gets two hits but he hit the ball four times right on the nose. I thought we had some good at-bats. Freeman, I don’t know how he hit that one pitch, it was a breaking ball down and he just flicked it, hooked it around the pole down there in right field. But we’ve seen him do that. Offensively, he’s got range with his bat.
“Gattis starting to swing the bat a little bit, hitting the ball to right field. So 1 through 8, we did some nice things.”
On Freeman’s potential
“I hate talking about potential because we always want more. If he goes out and puts up 10 or 12 years of what he did last year, we’ll be talking about him for a long time. But as human beings, we always say ‘Can he give us more?’ A solid season like he did last year, I’ll be good with it.”
On Wood settling down after the homer on his first pitch
“Mentally, he’s a tough cookie. He knows what he wants to do. He prepares about as good as – better than any young player I’ve been around. Physically and also mentally, and what I mean by mentally is the videos and his side work. When he goes out to the mound he knows what he wants to do, and that’s something you don’t see from a guy who’s got (12) starts in the major leagues.”
On first-pitch homer
“Obviously you don’t want to have that happen, but you saw him settle down. Other than he scattered some hits there, and we turned a couple of double plays to get him out of some jams. Other than that, he handled that lineup pretty well.”
On Kimbrel striking out the side with 97 mph heat after not looking great during spring training
“It seems like when the lights come on, the real guy shows up. He looked good.”
On Uggla: “He’s only got, what, three hits? But he’s hitting the ball as good as anybody on this team.”
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