MIKE MINOR
On atmosphere:
“That was one of the best crowds we’ve had this year. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of mixed out there, I could tell with the Cardinals fans. It’s the same way every year, when we go there.”
On reminder of the playoff game:
“It was more of a it’s a big team, we need the win, we knew we needed to come out and have our concentration and have our best effort.”
On beating a guy like Wainwright:
“It was huge. I knew it was going to be a close game because he’s a competitor and he had some good stuff tonight. Luckily we got some runs across the board. But yeah, it’s a big win.”
On if picked up where left off in Chicago:
“Yeah, I felt really good tonight. It was kind of one of those things where the first inning wasn’t as great as I’d have liked it to be. The first hitter I went to three balls, wasn’t really going that well but after that I kind of tuned it up.”
On going against first-place team, best offense in NL, Wainwright if feels like he’s an ace or can be an ace:
“I feel like that’s not really my role. I go out there every fifth day and just try to pitch. With Huddy going down, that was our ace. That was our best guy. We just need everybody else to step it up a little bit.”
On attacking their lineup, wanting to beat their best with your best:
“It’s like that every game. But we knew they had a good approach, a good approach to the opposite field. Had Jason make some good plays over there for me. And he knew it. Every inning, he came in and was like I’ll be over there, just let them hit it. We’ve seen the numbers. It seems like they can all hit everything so it’s more of we had our own game plan, watching film and me and Mac just worked together.”
JASON HEYWARD
On a big win:
“All of the wins after the All-Star break are huge. On the atmosphere, this is one of the best places to play in baseball when it’s packed like this. It’s a lot of fun for us to come off a road trip to the atmosphere.”
On reminders of last October’s playoff:
“It’s basically the same team, so you know they’re a good team, you know they’re an accomplished team and really mature. Best record in the game for a lot of reasons. You understand to beat them you have to beat them. You’re not going to slip away with any games against that team. And did a good job of it tonight.”
On Minor’s outing:
“He got a big hit right there for us and for himself tonight. He got some good defense (raised his eyebrows and smiled). We had some big hits and they gave us one run there late in the game. And we had Walden and Craig come in and close the game. Pretty solid win all around.”
On what performance by Minor means for team and staff:
“Mike has been great for us all season. He’s battled. He’s been a great competitor. I feel like our whole staff has. Everybody has kind of had a touch of good luck and bad luck at times, but glad for Mike to come out tonight and throw against a really good offense, a really good team. And he got some run support, got some defense. It wasn’t a blow-out by any means, so it was good for him to be able to feel comfortable in that atmosphere.”
On assuring Minor you’d take care of balls hit to opposite field:
“This team does, they have a really good approach of going the other way. That’s one of the things I do look forward to on nights like that because I know the ball is going to be hit my way. You just try and get good jumps, try and assume counts and assume the hitters up there and their approaches and use it to my advantage.”
On showing your opposite field swing too:
“I got a pitch to hit. He made a mistake there on a change-up away. He was pretty good tonight. He was in the game for over 100 pitches. He didn’t miss a lot tonight. We hit some balls hard and they made some plays and we just came out on top tonight.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Minor’s outing:
“He was terrific. He really was. Just a change-up that got over the plate a little bit to Molina and other than that, he was nails. In a big stage, facing probably one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, he did a hell of a job for us. And we put the ball in play. Molina goes home run and we come back and score a couple of runs. He was outstanding, he really was.”
On considering the circumstances, road trip, Hudson, opponent, the pitcher, if this was the biggest win of the season:
“I don’t know. You feel like when you win one of these like this, you feel it’s the biggest one but you’ve got to look back. I’m sure there are many, many more ahead of us that we’re going to call the biggest win of the season, but it was a hell of a start for Michael.”
On Heyward’s defense:
“He wears that Rawlings gold label on his glove and there’s a reason why. He made some unbelievable plays and hopefully he gets an opportunity to get another one (Rawlings gold glove) because he deserves it whether he’s playing in right field or center field or wherever he’s playing you feel that he covers it.”
On the sell-out crowd, Cardinals, playoff-type atmosphere:
“I think so. There were a lot of people wearing Atlanta Braves red, I thought.”
On Minor growing into an ace-type pitcher:
“Let’s not get there yet. We’ve still got a lot of stuff to go. Mike Minor doesn’t have to do anything and he’s been this good for a while. We saw him growing up and getting better and better this time last year. You look back at some of his starts, let him dictate his own career, and let’s not start putting labels or any of that kind of stuff just yet but he’s a darn good left-handed pitcher right now for us.”
On big lift for rotation:
“We talked a little bit about guys are going to have to grow up. And guys are going to have to mature, maybe a little faster than they normally would, but I think what we’ve seen so far in Minor and Teheran and we’ve seen Medlen do it, we’ve seen Beachy do it. I think we’re going to be fine.”
On Minor’s aggressiveness vs. good lineup:
“He went right after them. He threw the ball in on right-handers, and he backdoored his breaking ball, threw some change-ups. He beat a hell of a team. They catch the ball, they pitch, they hit, they score runs, they do a lot of good stuff. He beat a hell of a team today.”
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