Braves quotes after Thursday’s win against Giants

**FREDI GONZALEZ

On Tim Hudson’s performance

“He was outstanding. He really was. Even the hits he gave up a couple of them were ground balls so you know that sinker was working. He gave us every single opportunity to win today and we did. We managed that. We got two solo home runs and an RBI triple and that’s all we needed.

“When you have good pitching on the mound you feel like you have a good chance to win the ball game. You lose two in a row after winning seven and you feel like you are never going to win again. He goes out and gives us a terrific outing.”

On the six-game homestand

“A good homestand, 4-2, now keep going into a pretty significant series, these four games against Washington and see how we come out of that.”

On entering series against Nationals with momentum

“Big win. It was a big win after losing that game last night in extra innings and not leaving here until almost two in the morning, and coming back on short rest and getting a win is huge. Maybe the biggest win, or could be the biggest win, for us this year depending how this weekend turns out.”

On David Ross

“Rossy did a hell of a job handling the pitching [and hit] a big home run to straightaway center against a tough left-hander.”

On whether sore-kneed Chipper Jones will play against Nationals

“I expect him to play. I don’t know if he’ll play all four but at least three of the four games, which is a good thing. We pinch-hit him yesterday and kept him in the game and he struggled on the base paths. Hopefully today [with rest] will get him over the hump and get him to play in at least three of those for games.”

On almost all the Braves offensive production coming via home run in series

“That middle column [hits] doesn’t mean nothing [laughing]. It’s that column that says R [runs]. We got one more than they did. Solo home runs and an RBI triple and some pretty good defense and pretty good pitching. Any time you hand the ball off to O’Flaherty and Kimbrel you feel pretty good about the outcome of the game.”

On having a healthy Freddie Freeman

“He hits [whenever he's healthy]. The only bump in the road so far, knock on wood, is the hand injury coming out of Miami and he couldn’t get the contacts and the glasses situation [figured out], other than that, he’s been solid.”

On Tommy Hanson pitching in opener against Nationals

“He’s been good. Coming out of this series here he’s a guy you feel good about matching up. They’ve got Strasburg. Traditionally, we’ve been able to get good at-bats against him and hopefully that continues.

**TIM HUDSON

On the game and his performance

“We made those three hits count. It was a good win. A tough one last night but we salvaged one and hopefully we can keep it rolling tomorrow.”

On Fredi Gonzalez saying Thursday’s win could be biggest of year

“You never want to do get swept, especially at home, especially when you’ve been playing pretty well before that. It was a big win for us. I’m not sure if it was the biggest or not. If we squeak into the playoffs by a game, it will be.”

On not throwing at Giants’ Melky Cabrera for recent antics

“We won the game. That’s all that matters. Whenever they want to strut around when they lose, that’s fine. That’s their own thing.”

On reason for his effectiveness

“They had the fog machine turned on high, burning their eyes with the fog. No, it was just changing speeds. I didn’t feel particularly great out there. I located when I needed to. There were a couple times when I got out of my mechanics a little bit. I kept them off balance with some cutters, some change-ups, some curveballs. Guys behind me made some great plays when they needed to.”

On upcoming series against Nationals

“It’s going to be a big weekend, four games in three days. We need, at the very least, win two games. It would be great to gain a game on them when we are up there. They are good. They have some good pitching they are going to throw at us. We have to go and play better, pitch better and hopefully win the close ones.”

**DAVID ROSS

On all but one run coming on homers against Giants

“Hey, efficiency. That’s what we were working on today. It was nice that we capitalized on the hits. Freddie Freeman’s home run, I thought, was much bigger than mine. To come off a game like last night that we lost, and the fashion that we lost, and the quick turnaround and they score first, it was nice to get the momentum back in our direction when he hit that home run. I thought that was the biggest run of the game. Huddy settled in, found his sinker and just cruised from there. Pitched real well right until the end.”

On Hudson scattering eight hits

“He is our horse. We expect him to pitch well. That’s what we expect from him. He made his pitches when he had to. He got into a little bit of trouble but that’s what happens when you are aggressive. You are going to give up some hits. If you keep pounding that fastball in there and his sinker, he’s going to be in the game in the eighth inning. When he starts nibbling and we only get five [innings] out of him, then you have to have four or five guys out of the bullpen. He was doing good and it was nice to get a win, especially on a day like today, and get a little momentum going into Washington.”

On facing Strasburg again

“They’ve got a good staff, period. All their guys pitch well. It’s kind of one of those things that we seem to be getting him and Gio. That’s why they are leading the division, and a really tough division, is because they’ve got good pitching all the way through. They’ve got good pitching depth. We are excited to go there. They are leading us and we haven’t played well against them yet and beat them. If we want to win the division, lead the division, we’ve got to play good against them. If not, there is a lot of baseball left. We’ve got a lot of division games coming up and we just need to be playing well in general right now.”

On Hudson’s effectiveness

“He found a little bit mechanically, after he gave up that one run, he was getting on top of his sinker. He started getting a lot of first-pitch outs, a lot of early ground ball outs. When he is doing that, especially lefties rolling over the ball to first and second, he’s going good when that happens. I was worried about him today. Every time I call a game for him lately, he gives up six runs. It was nice he got that sinker going. He is our horse and we need him.”

**FREDDIE FREEMAN

On second-inning home run

“I was just looking for a strike and I got pitch over the middle of the plate and I was able to put a good swing on it and get it over.”

On his current hitting streak since got healthy

“I feel good. I finally got my swing where I want it to be since I have confidence in my hand and my eyes. It’s taken me awhile, but we finally got there.”

On whether he did anything over All-Star break to help hitting

“No, I just had a cortisone shot on the Monday of the break and I took a couple days off. We had the workout on Thursday so I just needed those few days to let my hand heal a little more.”

On trying to stay healthy the rest of the season

“That’s the goal. I had a couple of freak things that happened to me this year. Hopefully, that’s the worst of it. We’ve got a couple more months. Hopefully, I can stay healthy the rest of the way.”

On making up for lost time

“I just want to be able to help. There was a month and a half span where it was hard for me to do anything. Now, it’s my turn to step up and help the team out.”

**CRAIG KIMBREL

On getting 6 outs in 17 pitches (15 strikes) in past 2 days

“I’m turning into a groundball pitcher.” (laughs)

“No, but it’s nice to go out there and get three outs in eight or nine pitches.”

On difference between last year and this season, learned anything?

“I’ve got a better idea. I’m pitching a little more, instead of just throwing it up there as hard as I can. I’m throwing my offspeed pitches more consistently. When I can throw two pitches for strikes, it’s going to be in my favor. As long as I can stay ahead in the count, it seems like things always work out.”

Giants outfielder MELKY CABRERA

On all the boos and ticking people off in series

“I’m just tyring to play hard baseball. Sometimes when the adrenaline is really high something might happen. I’m not tyring to embarrass anybody. I’m just trying to play hard and competitive.”

Giants outfielder GREGOR BLANCO

On the “crotch chop” that he and other Giants did, which didn’t sit well with some in Atlanta

“I don’t know why they think that. They misunderstood what we were trying to do…. It’s a misunderstanding. They took it another way. We’ll keep doing it. It’s just like a handshake. It makes the game fun.”