Braves quotes after 2-0 win and series sweep at Miami

Braves quotes from A.J. Pierzyski, Shelby Miller and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s 2-0 win that completed a three-game series sweep of the Marlins.

**AJ PIERZYNSKI

On the homer as his first hit for Braves

“For my first hit to be a home run as a Brave is pretty cool. But more important is the way we pitched tonight. Our guys were lights-out from Shelby all the way to Grilli, that was the biggest thing. I was so proud of the way we pitched, not only tonight but the whole series. I thought we did a really good job containing them, making big pitches in big situations.”

On the bullpen responding as they have after the Kimbrel trade

“We’ve got two pretty good guys at the back end who’ve done pretty special things in their careers. Jim Johnson, having faced him, I always ask him how the heck do you ever give up a hit. His stuff is that good. And Grilli is just such a competitor. I’ve known Grilli for almost 20 years. Those guys are pretty good at the back end. And we have the ability, because of some of the arms that we have, to mix and match some of the other guys. And they’ve done a great job. Some of these young kids have come in and thrown strikes, which is the biggest thing. If they continue to do that, then we think we can have some success.”

“Every series is important, but there’s so much emphasis put on the first one. To come in here and play against a team that people are expecting really big things out of, and to play the way we did, hopefully carries over. But it’s only three games. There’s a whole lot more games. Hopefully it will continue to go like this and we’ll continue to stay positive. If we pitch like this, we’ll be fine.”

On learning last season how to stay sharp in a part-time role

“I went six weeks last year and I think I played in one game. So you learn how to keep yourself ready. I think one thing that’s changed is that I just learned that when you’re on the bench you can still contribute without playing. That was a big deal for me, because I always thought, man, I have to play every day to contribute. But there’s other ways you can do it, and my main goal is to help Bethancourt, help him be as good as he can. And you saw the first two games, he did really well, and that’s my main goal, to help him and help the pitchers do what they do and be as good as they can be.”

**FREDI GONZALEZ

On the sweep to start season

“We played good baseball. We pitched, got timely hitting. Today A.J. hits the two-run homer, that’s the thing everybody’s going to talk about. But he did a nice jog navigating three or four pitchers through that lineup. And that’s what he’s capable of doing. Veteran of 15, 16 years in the big leagues, and he knows how to do it. And he really did it today.”

Got [Pierzynski] for his leadership and all that, but he can still hit obviously

“He can hit. He puts the ball in play. We talk about Markakis and Callaspo and some of the other guys that we got who can put the ball in play, but you look at his numbers and he puts the ball in play. Koehler left a ball over the plate and he ambushed him. Because you’ve got to hit it to get it out of this ballpark, and it went out pretty easily.”

On Shelby Miller’s performance

“They fouled off a lot of pitches. Dee Gordon and Yelich probably saw 20, 25 pitches themselves, fouling balls off. But I think for the first one, he got into a tough inning there and they didn’t score any runs. For the first one, I’ll take it.”

On the bullpen pitching so well after trading Kimbrel the night before season opener

“We’ve got guys down there who can do it. Avi, his last couple of outings have been terrific. Johnson’s got a nice track record, and Grilli does as well. So you feel like when you’ve got a lead late in the game, if you can go to those guys every single time, you’re going to be OK.”

Cunniff’s first two MLB appearances, he showing you something?

“Yeah. I think today’s outing was a lot better than yesterday. I think he got a little nervous yesterday, but today he got his first major league win. It was nice. We were able to run him back out there for an inning and two-thirds, and he did a nice job.”

On guys like Cunniff showing you what they can do

“It’s a long season. Pretty soon they’ll be scouting reports out there and video reports, and we’ll have to make adjustments. They don’t call it the big leagues for nothing. But so far he’s been terrific.”

**SHELBY MILLER

On his performance in Braves debut

“It was good, but most importantly I felt good. Obviously wanted to be a little more efficient than five innings, but they had some good at-bats that eventually got my pitch count up. Gordon and Yelich did a really good job fouling off some good pitches, and rose the pitch count up a little bit. Tip your hats to a good lineup; it was a battle out there, they did good. Bullpen came in a did a good job as well. As far as my start, I’m not happy yet. Put up zeroes, but at the same time, need to be going deeper in games than that.”

On A.J. still being able to hit, you’re probably not surprised?

“Oh, no, he’s got power for sure. He’s a big boy. You expect him to make those kind of plays in those kind of situations when we needed some runs. He did a good job, put a good swing on that ball and got us our two runs to win the ballgame. And like I said, the bullpen came in and did a good job. A.J. did really good behind the plate as well.”