WASHINGTON — Braves quotes from Aaron Harang, B.J. Upton, Freddie Freeman and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s 6-2 win against the Nationals.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
Did you see some carry-over today with offense after getting four runs Tuesday?
“Yeah, we swung the bats really well and got some big hits when we needed to. B.J. got us on the board. That’s the second time he’s got a home run off of Strasburg in the last two appearances; he gets good hacks on him. I thought Justin’s at-bat when he hit the ball to the right side to get that RBI, that was a big one. And Jason at the top of the order, I think he got two or three hits. But we swung the bats well, and Aaron just kept us in the ballgame.”
More on Harang
“I thought it might have been one of the best outings he’s given us in a long time. He gives us a good opportunity. I was a little worried about him running the bases there (in the seventh) but he pitched the seventh inning perfect, 1-2-3.”
On Harang’s success vs. Nats and Strasburg continued woes vs. Braves
“It’s just one of those things you can’t explain. You really can’t. You can sit here and try to figure it out every which way, but you can’t explain it.”
“Why do we hit Strasburg and somebody else shuts us out? (Marlins’ Brad) Hand got a spot start on Sunday in Miami and we couldn’t even foul a ball off. You just don’t know. And trying to explain it, it wouldn’t sound very smart.”
On Bethancourt
“Betty had a couple of hits. He’s given us good, quality plate appearances.”
Seems particularly composed and stays within approach with runners on
“And good for him. He’s worked on that the last couple of years at Triple-A, and he’s come up here and you feel coinfident when he comes to the plate.”
On getting this win to avoid sweep
“Big, big. This was a big win. This is a win that you maybe look forward to tag on maybe three or four in a row and get us back on top of the wild-card race.”
On Freeman and Upton coming through with big hits, opposite-field knocks
“You’ve got Jason at the top and then the two guys at the middle in the third and fourth holes. When they’re going good, swinging the bat well, we’re scoring runs.”
On seeing signs in batting practice and past couple of games that offense could be coming around
“You see it. You see the guys coming in and working. You see the at-bats. And you get a good feeling that something good’s getting ready to happen.”
**B.J. UPTON
On homering each of past two Strasburg starts
“It might be coincidence that it’s off of him. I mean, it doesn’t matter who’s out there, you always try to put a good swing on the ball.”
Nice to get it in the situation you did today, to give Braves a 1-0 lead
“Definitely. Any time you score runs and get ahead, that’s a good thing. Aaron had his stuff today. He looked real comfortable on the mound. We knew it was going to be a battle, and we came up with some timely hits today.”
On Harang
“He never gets ahead of himself. He doesn’t get too down, always stays even keel and finds a way to keep us in ballgame.”
On coming out of series with a win before off day and series in Texas
“You never want to get swept. You always want to win a series, but to come out of here with one…. You know, they’re playing very well right now. There’s still some time left. We’ve just got to continue to go out and grind games out every day and try to come out with a win.”
**AARON HARANG
Importance of getting a win here in series finale to avoid sweep before heading to Texas
“The last couple of nights have been tough. Lost a tough one the first night and had some opportunities last night, weren’t able to pull them out. But to be able to go out today and finish strong, finish up the series and get a victory, was good going into that off day tomorrow and then going down to Texas.”
On getting back to what he was doing before the struggles of the past four weeks
“Yeah, I went back this last week and watched a few things. I was flying open a little bit, so the ball wasn’t coming out of my hand like I wanted it to and I was really having to force things. So I looked back over some stuff this week, worked on it and threw a couple of bullpens this week to really try to fine-tune things, and went out there and felt good today.”
On fun of pitching in important games again in a playoff race like this
“It’s huge. Every game going down the stretch. I think the biggest thing, we can’t focus on the division as much as the wild card right now. Just go out there and not look too far ahead, just go out and play one game at a time, focus on the game at hand.”
How’d it feel for you personally to be able to come through in key situation?
“It’s big to be able to kind of help flip things around and get us out of here on a good note. Because if we came in here and got swept, it’s going to be a sour note going into the next series and even next week when these guys come to our place. So to be able to go out there and keep our team in the game, and the guys were able to come out and get a couple of runs off Stephen and then jump on the bullpen after that, it’s huge for us.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On Harang
“Aaron was awesome. He worked both sides of the plate, gave us seven strong innings, and he got a hit and a run scored. Have to hear about that one.” (Rolls eyes, laughs)
On getting going in the middle innings
“The shadows were a little tough in the first few innings, and once we got the shadows away we were able to see the baseball. Justin was huge. He was just trying to get the runner over. When you play the game of baseball the right way, you can get a knock and a RBI out of it, too. And Bethancourt with a huge two-out knock. I think that was the big boost that we needed right there.”
“We got some more runs. Justin’s been awesome all season. He put us on his back tonight and got us some big runs there. And Aaron was great, the bullpen was great. Hopefully this can give us a little push that we needed to get going.”
On Bethancourt keeping his approach in big situations, runners on, etc.
“Yeah, with two strikes, he and Strasburg, before he hit that two-out hit he was getting 95-, 96-, 97-mph heaters on the outside corner, and he was just flicking his wrist and just fouling pitches off till he got one he was able to hit. His approach has come a long way in the last couple of years, and he’s very, very calm, cool and collected up at the plate and doesn’t let anything get to him. And he’s starting to show that when he gets chances.”
On Freeman hitting ball to opposite (left) field
“I’m feeling better at the plate for about a week now. I’ve started to get the opposite-field swing again. Unfortunately it took 140 games to get going again. Better late than never, I guess. But hopefully we can keep going and keep doing this, and maybe we’ll be there at the end of 16 (more) games where we want to be.”
On winning last game before the off day Thursday
“Everybody’s going to be coming out refreshed, then hopefully we take care of business like we should in Texas.”
