Braves’ quotes after Friday win against Phillies

***CHIPPER JONES

“Couldn’t have scripted it any better. Obviously the first inning and a half was rough, spotting them three runs. You’re not going to win too many ball games doing that. Their balls were finding holes, and we made a mistake or two, but J-Hey kind of invigorated the crowd with his triple, and man, the hits just started coming after that. It was fun. It was a big game for us, and a good remedy for a three-game losing streak.”

How good does it feel to reach a milestone when the hits were some important to the game?

“I’m just glad that one of the hits tonight came in a big spot. Really kind of got us over the hump. It’s one thing to get back in the game and tie it, but to put the nail in the coffin with three or four consecutive hits against an awesome pitcher was big for all of our confidence.”

How nice to see Bobby Cox here to see the milestone

[Laughs]. “You had to know Bobby Cox was going to be in the house. I didn’t realize he was throwing out the first pitch until right before. Just awesome. Fredi catching it, kind of passing the torch. He’s seens a lot of big milestones around this ballpark over the last 10, 12, 13 years, so why not this one?”

How good to bounce back against a good pitcher like Lee after struggling against some lesser pitchers on the road?

“It feels real good. It’s still the road. We play professional sports, and it’s tough to win on the road when you’ve got 30, 40, 50,000 people against you. We’re just kind of finding our footing as a ballclub, kind if jelling. Just wait until we get a full sampling and are able to play some games at home and get some confidence for all the guys. Then grade us out on how we’re doing.”

On coming home to a big crowd

“Real nice. It was loud, man. On the bases-clearing double, it was deafening. And that’s what we need here. We need to have an environment. We’re playing a high level of baseball, but we need an environment that’s intimidating for people to come into. And tonight, once we got rolling, it was intimidating.”

On coming back from early deficit

“There were a ton of people out there, when we were down 3-0, saying, ‘Here we go again.’ But this team is not going to back down. It’s not going to die. We’re going to keep coming at them and hopefully it’s enough. And tonight it was.”

On confidence against Philly’s rotation

“It’s one game. This is a long season and we’ve got 17 more games [against them]. It’s one game. It’s good to come out and set the tone. Once we walk out we’re thoroughly focusing on Oswalt tomorrow. If we give them the game back tomorrow tonight, it doesn’t mean all that much. If we build some momentum and keep the pressure on them and keep winning ballgames against them, then we’re going to make some headway.”

On reaching getting 2,500 hits tonight

“It was fun. I’ve got some of my best friends in the ballpark tonight. It was really cool to do it opening night here in front of a packed house instead of 25,000 or 30,000 in mid-summer when it doesn’t mean all that much. To have come through in a big spot to help us win a ball game was very gratifying.”

***FREDI GONZALEZ

“Nice crowd, nice opening day, nice ceremonies. Huddy giving us 7-2/3 innings – he didn’t start out real well; I didn’t think they hit the ball hard in the first inning. Gave up a couple of seeing-eye singles, couple of runs. But he settled in and our offense started cranking.

“Score runs, good pitching, usually that’s a good combination to win ballgames. That’s what happened tonight.”

On Hudson’s first couple innings, some odd things happened

“Yeah, some weird stuff. Even the little comebacker [in the fifth inning], he bobbles it and now we’ve got the big boy up [Ryan Howard] with the bases loaded. He did a nice job getting the comebacker for the double play to get out of that.”

How important to win first one tonight?

“Very important. Now we’ve got to try to win tomorrow and win the series. But yeah, to get the first one against a very good ballclub. I was looking at their offensive numbers; everybody’s hitting .300, .400, and they can put some runs on the board. And facing a guy like Lee – it was a good ballgame, let’s just put it that way.

“And then to top it off, Bobby throwing out the first pitch, and Chipper getting to 2,500 hits. Boy, you couldn’t have scripted it any better than that, really.”

Coming from 3-0 back after two innings

“That’s why he [Hudson] is a big-game pitcher, for me. He gave up three runs then didn’t give up another run, let our offense start swinging the bats, and we got right back in it.”

After rough week with bats, nice to break out?

“Yeah, you look at the schedule and you see Gallardo and you see this guy and [Oswalt] tomorrow and Hamels on Sunday, and you’re going man, oh man, this is going to be a tough week for the bats. But it’s baseball and you’ve got to play the games. Today, we got him. Maybe next time he gets us. I’m happy that it turns out this way this time.”

What was it like catching Bobby’s first pitch?

“He had good movement.” [smiles]

***JASON HEYWARD

On his triple to start second-inning rally

“I knew he was aggressive in the zone. I hung in there with him, tried to battle every at-bat tonight. It was just good to get the inning going and get some momentum.”

On coming back from 3-down against Lee to win

“It was huge, man. Against this team, against a team in your division. And it’s the home opener. You want to play well, get some motivation going into the rest of the season. It was big to get a big inning like that and give Huddy a chance.”

On Cliff Lee tonight, anything different than what you’ve seen on film?

“No, he was aggressive in the zone, attacked the zone. He threw a cutter tonight. Threw me a good curveball in my second AB against him, and struck me out with a changeup away. That was a close pitch either way, but I felt like he made the adjustment on me, and it was going in that direction. But we put up some good ABs tonight.”

On how good it felt to get home

“Amazing to get home. Felt like I hadn’t been home in two months. After spring [training] we had like a night and a half at home for exhibition games, then got out of here.

“It was a nice welcome-home party with the fans here, for sure.”

On what Chipper’s bat means to the team

“A lot. He’s our No. 3 hitter. He’s a switch-hitter, obviously, and a Hall of Famer, at that. It’s just huge to have him go up on either side of the plate and know he’s going to put up a good AB.”

***TIM HUDSON

Good to get back to some heat and humidity?

“It was nice to work up a sweat, something that was above 40 degrees for a change.”

How proud of the effort, hanging in there after giving up three early?

“I feel good about it. Obviously they put together an inning in the first, and had a chance to score some runs there with the bases loaded in I’m not sure what inning it was [fifth]. Yeah, I’m proud of it. It wasn’t easy by any means, but can’t argue with the results. We got a win. It’s fun to go out there and watch those guys swing it like they were swinging it.

“The guy on the other side there, he’s got some pretty good credentials. And we took it to him. It was all of our guys tonight. They did their job and had some good at-bats against him. A lot better than my at-bats, that’s for sure.”

On the win, how big was it?

“It’s just one game. Cliff had an off night. We just caught him on a night where he didn’t have his good stuff and we were able to capitalize on it. I didn’t particularly feel like I had my best stuff tonight, but I battled and we had some good plays when we needed them. There were some line-drive outs that kept them from innings that they could have gotten something going. We just had things going our way tonight.

“They’re a good club, there’s no question about that. When they score three runs with that guy on the mound, it’s going to last most of the time. But tonight that just wasn’t the case.”

On Freddie Freeman’s line-drive stab

“Valdez took an outside heater and drove it the other way. It saved a run from scoring right there. [Freeman] is good over there. He’s really good. I think throughout the year all of our fans are going to see what kind of defensive first baseman he is. He looks goofy, but he’s pretty good over there.”

On getting Ryan Howard on double-play comebacker with bases loaded

“I was in a tight spot right there. Bases loaded, one out, him coming up. That ain’t exactly how I drew it up. But I made some decent pitches on him; I made some pretty good pitches on him most of the night. He hit that little squibber back to me. It was a pretty challenging play, believe it or not, even thought it looked like it was pretty routine. Considering I booted the one right before that, and landed right on my ass…. I knew what not to do” [on similar comebacker from Howard].

On Phillies’ two-run first inning

“They didn’t really hit the ball hard. Looking back on it, the play to Chipper with the guy stealing third with two outs. You know, if we could do that all over again, we’d probably just have Chipper hold his ground. Because there’s two outs, they’re going to have to get a base hit anyway. When we open up that hold right there, it lets that pull hitter have that much more room to get a base hit, and that’s what happened. But, you know, if he hits a laser down the line and Chipper catches it down the line, good for us. It just so happened he put it right where Chipper had left. They got two runs; could have got out of it with nothing. But they’re a good club. Good clubs capitalize on things like that.”

On Chipper’s 2,500th hit

“It’s exciting, man. I grew up a Braves fan; I was a fan of Chipper’s long before I started playing with him. It’s exciting to see. It’s great to be part of it. Being part of these milestones that he’s going to star accumulating, it’s pretty cool. I think everybody in here obviously understands how tough it is to play the game that long and to put those kinds of numbers up. It definitely says something about his longevity and the great player that he’s been.”