Braves postgame comments after 5-0 win

BOBBY COX

On winning his 2,500th game:

“We sipped champagne, (a few) of us, for winning the ball game. D Lowe just pitched his rear end off today. Nyjer Morgan, the first hitter must have fouled 10 balls off and got his pitch count up, but he battled and battled. He’s had three really outstanding starts in a row now. And Alex got a big hit for us. We finally hit a homer with somebody on and could breathe a little bit. We haven’t been breathing much, trying to catch people. So it was a good win today, maybe get the team rolling again, get a little momentum going.”

On the milestone:

“I (forgot) until Roger (McDowell) told me. I was throwing the cards away and going to the mound. Roger got the (lineup) cards somewhere and Wagner gave me the ball. (PR director) Brad (Hainje) told me the other day, but I had no clue during the game that was 2,500. I didn’t think I’d ever live that long, let alone win that many.”

On Lowe:

“You feel like you’re going to win when he toes it up. He’s been upbeat here the last few games, bigtime upbeat.”

DEREK LOWE

On his outing:

“Today was an interesting game. I always felt we were somewhat in control of the game but the pitch count was outrageous. I walked (Adam) Dunn somewhat on purpose trying to be cautious. It kind of set the tone, first batter of the game going 10, 11 pitches. That’s the only downside, the amount of innings. For some reason I wasn’t able to get quick outs, easy innings.”

On the win:

“Gonzo’s home run was huge and the bullpen has pitched like that all year. This team always plays us good. it’s hard to figure out but they do. They normally pitch extremely well. It seems like they hit Nos. 1-8 every time we face them. For me personally, it’s good to have two good games against them because of my lack of success of the last two years.”

On Cox’s 2,500th win:

“It’s amazing. Longevity is hard to come by these days. It seems like managers come and go so fast and GMs are in and out the same way so it’s hard to have roots in one place for a long time.”

On pitching this time of year:

“The main thing is being able to act as if it’s any other game, not go out there and try to be a superhero and do things you’re not capable of doing.”

On his game plan vs. Nats:

“We pitched the same way as two weeks ago. Set the tone early, I’m going to do the exact same thing I did last time and see if there were adjustments made. And there were a few, but for the most part, we were able to pretty much do the same thing.”

On if he’s willing to go on three days’ rest:

“Yes. this time of year, you pitch whenever. I haven’t heard anything about that. Nothing has been said but it’s that time of year. You take more medication and get back out there.”

ALEX GONZALEZ

On his approach in the home run at-bat:

“He was throwing a lot of breaking balls with men in scoring position. The first at-bat he throws me, I saw six pitches, five pitches, he threw me four breaking balls. That’s what I’d seen all day, the breaking ball, to everybody.”

BRIAN MCCANN

On Lowe:

“He’s trusting his other pitches more now than just his sinker and curveball. He’s executing every pitch and not giving in. When you’re a sinkerball pitcher and you do get in trouble you can get out of it with one pitch. Huge win today. D Lowe stepped up big. We did exactly what we needed to do. We’ve got to show up tomorrow and do the same thing.”

BILLY WAGNER

On halting the losing streak:

“That’s the key for us to play baseball and not get caught up in trying to do too much, get back to our game of just trying to make chaos, have other teams make mistakes and take advantage of it. Let the pitching try to take over and shut guys down. Derek was phenomenal. And you put Moylan, Venters and Kimbrel out there, that’s exactly what you expect. That were great today. That’s how you have to go out. We don’t have to do a lot, just do little things and stay positive.”

On creating ‘chaos’ offensively:

“That’s how we have to play. We can’t go out there and try to create something we’re not. We can’t hit three-run home runs when there’s one guy on. We have to stay within ourselves and keep doing what we’ve been doing all year long.”

On the road trip:

“When we went into Philadelphia, we played three very good games. We did everything we could do. Tip your hat to philly, they were phenomenal. Coming here – we played Philly way better than we played Washington. A lot of it is because you don’t know what to expect. You can go out there and, just the way they go about their business, it’s hard to predict what they’re going to do. You can’t set them up. A lot of times playing Washington, it’s just (about) getting lucky.”

CHIPPER JONES

On Cox’s 2,500th win:

“It’s another unattainable goal that Bobby sets for other managers,” Jones said. “That’s more games that I’ve played in in my career and he’s won that many. That says enough right there. It just shows you how good it’s been around Atlanta for a long time. We’re all happy for him and hopefully we’ve got about seven more. Trying to get him to 2,507.”