PHILADELPHIA — Braves quotes from Julio Teheran, Michael Bourn and Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s 8-1 win that clinched series against the Phillies.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Teheran’s performance
“Other than the seventh inning, when he got himself in a little bit of trouble – that was a big punchout, punching out Blanco with the bases loaded; you don’t want them to get back in the game – but he was in command of the game the whole time in my opinion. And we scored early and kept adding on, that makes for a good baseball game.”
On Bourn getting four hits after not having much luck lately
“If you just stay patient the baseball gods will reward you. Today he got four quality at-bats, hit the ball hard every single time. But he has been almost the whole trip, and today he got rewarded for staying patient and staying with his plan.”
Any temptation to pull Teheran with bases loaded in seventh?
“Have you seen our bullpen?”
Nice to end a rough trip with six guys having multi-hit games tonight?
“Yeah, Olivera got three, Nicky got a couple, Freddie got a couple, Bethancourt hit a home run. Our offense was firing on all cylinders. Now we’ve got a big series at home. I saw the Mets swept Washington. They’ve got a little momentum coming (to Atlanta), and it would sure be fun to get back there and win another series at home.”
On Julio turning around his road woes from earlier this season, pitching well on road in last four starts
“Everything goes around. He kept battling, and now he’s rattled off a few nice starts in a row.”
On winning a series, importance to establishing some momentum
“Big time. Every win from now on – because we’re playing some big series. We’ve got the Mets coming, we’ve got Toronto right behind them; they’re trying to win their division. You’ve got the Nationals, and we go to the Mets. So it’s good to be playing these games. Obviously you want to beat the Torontos and the Mets of the world, but it’s nice for us to keep playing those series and winning series.”
On Bethancourt taking advantage of an infrequent start and his good chemistry with Teheran
“Yeah, he’s played sparingly since he’s been up here. We’ve given him some opportunities, and A.J. has gotten some games. Bethancourt will continue to get some playing time. But again, I really like the way he handled Teheran, I liked the way he caught today, I liked the way he blocked the ball, more than the other thing – the offensive stuff is gravy, but he had a nice approach today.”
**MICHAEL BOURN
On getting four hits in a win
“If feels great. To try to contribute to the team, and then we get a win on top of that. So it feels great. Hopefully let it carry over. Just take it one day a time. We were able to take the lead and keep the lead. Julio pitched a great game, and I think that’s the No. 1 thing. When you’ve got the starting pitching like that, you’ve got a chance to stop them and be able to keep getting back in the dugout and keep being aggressive against their pitcher.”
How much did you guys need this?
“We loved it because we got the series win, too, and we’re going to have a happy flight. We’ve been battling but we just haven’t had any luck, and today we were able to get us a series win, and that’s a big thing. Try to carry it over, just let it ride over hopefully. We’ve been playing hard, giving it all we’ve got. Even against Washington when we got down, we still played hard. We didn’t give up. That’s the No. 1 thing. We just have to try to finish as strong as we can.”
**JULIO TEHERAN
Effective and a lot of emotion, fist-pumping again from you; are we seeing the old Teheran from the past?
“Yeah, definitely that’s the Julio Teheran everybody used to know. I know it’s at the end of the year, but I just want to finish strong, and that’s what I’ve been able to do right now.”
On pitching so well against at Philadelphia
“Every time I come here it reminds me of when I made my debut. I don’t know, every time I get here I just try to pitch good, and every time I do good here.”
On the run support early on
“They were really good from the first inning. The defense, too, we were making plays out there. We were doing the little things that you need to do to win games, and it was a fun game.”
How important was it to win this game and the series
“It was very important, because we want to go home with a win and just keep it going at home. Hopefully do the same thing that we did today.”
On his good rapport and working relationship with catcher Christian Bethancourt
“We’ve been working (together) since the minor leagues. It’s different, it’s easier to work with a catcher that you know, and a pitcher that you know. Every time that we get to play together, we can enjoy the game and have fun. If we get in trouble, we try to push each other and come back and do the right thing.”
