Braves quotes after Sunday’s win over Phillies

JAIR JURRJENS

On his outing:

“I was throwing a lot of strikes. This is a good lineup. If you fall behind and you throw down the middle, they’re going to make you pay.”

On trying to follow Hudson, Hanson:

“I was just trying to be even close to the performance they had. I just wanted to go out there and give my teammates the best I can and try to keep them in the game.”

On good feelings going into the break with sweep:

“Yes. It’s going to give us a positive mindset to go into the break, go rest for a little bit and prepare ourselves for the second half and keep playing good baseball.”

On after Victorino scratched, if some mental letdown vs. Pridie:

“Yes. That’s the thing about baseball that’s so crazy. When you see a guy, without thinking about it, you relax a little bit and that shows you that you can never relax in baseball. You need to go after everybody the same. He made me pay twice.”

On fastball command not what he wanted early:

“It’s still a work in progress. But my slider and my change-up were good. Keep people off-balance and got ahead on my fastball when I needed to.”

On some good change-ups:

“I’m getting confident with it and my slider is getting good too. I feel I can throw ‘both pitches whenever I want to now.”

DAN UGGLA

On the series:

“We got great starts out of our pitchers and our bullpen did what they’ve been doing all year.”

On getting a good swing on a ball first time in a while:

“Oh man. I feel like I hadn’t had a good swing on a ball since Miami. To actually connect and get one over the fence, it was a nice little weight off the shoulders. It’s been a while.”

On having something positive to take into the break:

“Yeah it is. Going into the break with a sweep, gaining a couple games on the Mets and the Nationals. Feeling a lot better at the plate, so can’t complain. We’re in the right direction.”

BRIAN MCCANN

On if he’s sorry to have to stop for the break:

“No, not at all. It’s going to be four days, this whole team is going to get their bodies healed up and come back for the second-half push.”

On Simmons injury:

“It’s tough losing him for an extended period of time with how much he’s meant to us. But we’ve got a guy in Jack Wilson who’s been there and done that and he’s been playing for 12 years in this league and he’s one of the top shortstops defensively in baseball. He’s got to fill in and he’s got to do a good job.”

On recent successes offensively:

“I’m in a place I feel like now that I haven’t been in three years. I’m excited for the second half. I’m excited for everything that comes after this. I’ve just got to keep pushing.”

On job starters did in series:

“They were unbelievable. I think that’s something that may get overlooked this series, but they all went deep in the games. And when we handed the ball off to the bullpen obviously they did their job.”

On Jurrjens now vs. April:

“For me I think it’s just velocity. I think when he was throwing 86, 87, it’s hard to get in there on those lefties. But when you’re up to 89, 90, 91, it gets in there. He’s working his change-up off that really well. He’s been a shot in the arm for us since he’s been back. It’s been great to see because he was a top-of-the-rotation guy for us for four years. He was one of the top pitchers in all of baseball for that span. When he gets in that zone like he was in today, he’s a surgeon, he can throw any pitch in any spot. He can get down 3-1, still make his pitch. Guy can really pitch.”

On pitches to Pridie:

“We were trying to go in there on the home run, and he left it out over the plate, and it’s something that we talked about. Got to get it in there and stay in there, especially ahead in the count like that. So he settled down nice and was able to make his pitches.”

ANDRELTON SIMMONS

On what trainers told him:

“I’ve still got to check it out. I’ve got to go to a specialist and see what he says, hopefully it’s nothing too bad.”

On hustle play, if he’d do it again the same way:

“Every time. You’ve got to take some risks. You can’t just be passive. If I get a chance to do it again, I might slide this time, but I’m going to go hard though.”

On if normally sliding head-first:

“Yeah. I prefer that. I feel like I’m faster that way, but I do both but that time I felt like I had to slide head first.”

On what he saw made him go for it:

“(Center fielder Pridie) got complacent. He thought I was going to stop. I saw him lob the ball in a bit, so I took off. I was thinking two, I always think make sure he makes a good play, throws the ball in hard. He didn’t so I took advantage of it.”

On disappointment of this happening last day before break:

“Stuff happens. I’ve got to live with the consequences. It’s tough but I can’t do anything about it now.”

FREDI GONZALEZ

On bittersweet way to finish, given the injury to Simmons:

“That’s just the way it goes, this game of ours, sometimes. You pitch three great games and you win three and then you still feel sick to your stomach with Simmons with his fractured (hand) there. He’s going to go see the doctor tomorrow and get re-evaluated there and see what the course of action is the rest of the way. I tell you what we’ve rattled off five in a row and we’ve pitched one time through the rotation outstanding, so hopefully we come out of the other end, we’ll keep pitching.”

On McCann’s value when things going well:

“He’s a big bat. He’s a big bat and you see him getting going again. We need him, we need everybody. I was glad to see Danny get a big hit today and Mac, but I really am proud the way we pitched. I think we retired the side after the sixth, nine up and nine down the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, so that was good in this ballpark with a one-run lead. JJ was outstanding. Medlen navigates against those left-handers in the eighth, did a hell of a job. There’s no secret or coincidence, if you pitch, you’ve got a good chance to win every single night. And we’ve done that here in the last five or six days.”

On offense responding with deficits:

“We had a couple of situations where they scorred and we scored. That was happening to us last week. I think the in Red Sox series we had seven innings where we scored and six of them they scored the following inning. Hopefully we’re on the other end of it. It does do a lot for momentum when you can score after the other team scores and shut them down after your team scores.”

On evaluating first half overall:

“OK. really OK. I’m really pleased with the way we finished, especially these last five, six days when our pitching got consistent. We’re good enough offensively where we’re going to score enough runs. We’re good enough defensively. When we can rattle off and get deep in ballgames with our pitching staff we become a much better baseball team.”

On is surprised at Phillies’ struggles:

“I’m surprised and I’m scared because that’s a good club they’ve got over there. They’ve got the pitching that they could rattle off 10, 12 in a row. And they’ve got the offense. They’ve got some guys that are banged up and you could tell that they’re not quite there yet. It’s probably still spring training for them, Utley and Howard, but there’s still a long season left and you wake up every morning in our division and you feel like you’re within reach of the first place team.”

On if you hate to see a guy slide in head-first vs. knowing it’s a hustle play:

“It’s one of those things you preach about it. But what a heads up play. What a heads up play the young man made. He ran the bases right from the very beginning, something that you preach. Don’t think about going two halfway down first base. You make the outfielder stop you right from the very beginning, and he did that. He can slide 2,000 times and that stuff never happens to him. So it’s a freak play. It’s a cruel game at times and hopefully tomorrow the re-evaluation is a good one and we can minimize the damage with him.”

On if 4-6 weeks:

“I have not heard anything. It all depends on what they want to do, pin it or wire it or let it heal.”

On if they’ll call up Pastornicky:

“He’s got to be the guy now, I think. I’m sure I’ll talk to (Wren) before we get on the plane or later tonight.”