BOSTON -- Braves quotes after Sunday’s 7-1 win against the Red Sox and ace Chris Sale, who gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings, twice as many runs as he allowed in any other start this season. Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning.
** BRIAN SNITKER
On the Ronald Acuna’s knee injury at first base
“I haven’t really got any reports other than he’s real sore. He’s being looked at, so we’ll know more (later). I just like the fact that he walked off, because when he did it I thought (it was) what Bryce Harper did last year, looked realy similar. So we’ll know more later.”
Will he get an MRI?
“Oh, I’m sure they’ll do everything. He’s being checked out right now.”
On “Folty” pitching seven strong innings on day when Braves needed to rest bullpen with doubleheader Monday
“Oh, man, that was huge. I told Chuck (Hernandez) going in, if he can give us seven innings that’d be great. And it was good, too, because Viz and Minter had been off and it was good for both of them to get out there. Now we’ve got everybody back ready to go for the two games tomorrow. That kind of helped us right the ship a little bit. It was huge.”
On Flowers getting the three-run homer early off Sale
“Any time you score runs off him it’s big. I mean, good God, he’s one of those we talk about being the best in the game. We had good at-bats against them, so that was big.”
On it being twice as many runs as Sale had allowed this season
“I have no idea. I don’t know. I mean, just one of them days, I think, probably. We were due to have a good game here. We scored some runs (Saturday), so that was good. We haven’t been scoring any runs and the offense woke up yesterday. It was nice to see us back it up with another one today.”
On winning to end a tough trip
“Yeah, it went from being a really you-know-what road trip to just a not very good one.”
On Acuna’s fifth-inning plate appearance where he fell behind 1-2 and worked a walk
“Yeah, the last couple of days he’s had some really good at-bats. He made some nice plays; it was a rough outfield, today especially with that wind blowing. I thought he made some really nice plays in right field. But those were some really good at-bats to see out of a young kid.”
More on Folty’s performance
“He was on the attack and I loved just how he stayed after it. He was throwing a lot of strikes. His stuff was really good today…. It was big, just where we were in this series and the road trip. We needed a start like that to just kind of regroup.”
Were you thinking about the no-hitter he carred to ninth inning at Oakland?
“It crossed my mind. I was like, man…. But they (Red Sox) are such a good hitting team, it’s not real practical to think that. But you never know. I mean, he’s the kind of guy that could -- that’s the kind of stuff he has. He’ll probably throw one before he’s done.”
**TYLER FLOWERS
On getting to Sale, who hadn’t allowed more than three runs all season
“We were able to take advantage of some mistakes and piece them together. A lot of this trip we haven’t been able to piece hits together consecutively or in the same inning, so it was nice to be able to do that and get something going early for us.”
On Folty’s performance
“Today wasn’t his best command day, but he had decent command of off-speed. Obviously he kept high velocity throughout, so being able to throw off-speed for strikes buys you a little more margin for error, especially when you’re throwing that hard. He made big pitches when he needed to, mixed in some early (in counts) outs that gave him a chance to go deeper in the game. But pretty electric stuff throughout the whole day.”
Initial thoughts when Acuna went down
“You kind of assume the worst, especially seeing that it happened either at the bag or just after it. You kind of assume that a knee-buckle situation, when he stayed down and EY was waving them (trainers) out, you knew it was pretty serious. To see him walk off, that was a promising sign.”
What’s going through your mind when you fall behind 0-2 to Sale (he homered on an 0-2 fastball in the second inning)
“I don’t want to be 0-2.” (Laughs)
What are you looking for there?
“I was looking for the fastball. You’ve got to respect that with any pitcher, but especially a guy like that. You’re just trying to be on time for that and then trust your eyes if you see anything different. I hadn’t shown I could hit a fastball at that point off of him, so in my mind why would you throw something different to give a guy a chance that’s shown he’s a little late on something? I’m sure that’s not where he wanted to throw that, but I was able to get on time more and barrel it up.”
Any comfort level going against a guy you caught so many times when you were White Sox teammates?
“Absolutely not. (Laughs.) No, I always found those more difficult, because it’s easy to try to call the game for him as you’re trying to hit off of him, and that can get you into trouble pretty quick, too. So I don’t think there’s any advantage to it, I think he’s just happened to make some mistakes to me in the times we’ve faced each other, and I’ve been fortunate to hit the barrel with it.”
**MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ
On pitching seven innings on a day when the bullpen needed it, with doubleheader coming up Monday
“That should be your mentality every time, but I haven’t even reached the seventh this year, so it was a big day for all of us. The offense really got my confidence going with those three runs early. So yeah, just to give them (seven) innings today to give them a little rest before this little debacle we’re going into, it was big giving them a little break.”
On bearing down against Sale in a game the Braves needed to win to avoid sweep
“Yeah, a very big day, especially when you’ve got one of the best pitchers in baseball going out there. So I knew once they got the three runs that I had to take the opportunity in my own hands and try to not let them score at all, because you just never know, especially with this lineup. I did catch a break with a couple of hitters being out, but still it’s a tough lineup. Caught a little break with the wind blowing in, too. Couple of fly balls there that got knocked down.
“Try not to get swept. We definitely needed this win going back home to face the Mets and Washington. It’s going to be another big week for us. So it’s a happy little flight home and kind of rest tonight and get going tomorrow.”
On getting a 3-0 lead early against Chris Sale and if that changed anything
“It’s a little different, but at the same time you’ve just got to, in my mind today, just keep going with my game plan, just attacking them. In the past I might have done something different, got a little too excited and tried to be better than I was in the first three or four innings. But I think I was the same the whole game today, just try to get ahead of hitters, attack with my off-speed as well. Got ahead of hitters and put them away.”
On 2B Ozzie Albies catching the line drive with a leaping stab of a catch
“I told him that was probably the play of the day, save of the day. It was funny. I didn’t think he had any shot of getting that. He just jumped and the ball was like a magnet right into his glove. I kind of jumped with him. It was a huge play. You never know what could have happened after that. I told him that was the play of the game.”
On Acuna injury
“I saw EY (first-base coach Eric Young) kind of run over there and you didn’t really have to say much when you heard the oohs and ahs from the crowd a couple of times after they showed the replay. Bless the hell out of him, it’s not something you like to see, especially on a routine ground ball to short that he beats out with that hustle and goes down. We’re praying for him. It was amazing to see him walk off like that. We were all shocked to see that. But hopefully we get him back healthy.”
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