As seen on FS Wisconsin:
On Marco Estrada:
Estrada was outstanding. Good changeup, fastball, located well, all down in the zone. Velocity, too: I saw some pretty big numbers thrown. And he had a nice breaking ball. So, yeah, outstanding game.
When asked if he expected this from Estrada:
Of course, I didn't expect him to go and not be able to throw well, but to throw this well? I don't think anybody expected that. He's done an outstanding job for us.
On Estrada's long term role:
No, I can't. I don't know. He's making it really tough, though. We've got a lot of decisions coming up when we get everybody healthy. It's going to be tough.
When asked if it was Estrada's last start:
No, he's got one more.
On scoring single runs in three innings:
Yeah, and all home runs. So there goes that small ball. Great job by their guy too. He's had a couple of, I think his last two games have been outstanding. And I see why. He locates a fastball that's either running from you or cutting, he locates it both back door and front dooring, which makes it really difficult for a hitter . I was looking at the pitches he threw to Counsell and you can't pitch him better than that. So that's a nice pitcher they've got. I knew coming into the game, Dale (Sveum) talked about him a bit and I knew it was going to be a tough ball game.
On getting the first win against the Reds:
I think anytime you get a win against these guys it definitely is a relief. You never want to lose too many games to somebody, because sometimes it does end up mental. Why do certain teams play so well against other teams every year? I don't know what the answer is, except that it's gotta be something upstairs. Whether it's the feeling of one team very high going in and knowing they always play well against a certain team, or if it's the other team thinking 'Oh, here they come again' and they don't play well against them. One or the other, it makes a difference. It becomes mental.
On John Axford:
Outstanding from him. And the last three outings from Ax have been great. He certainly remembers the first game against them, so I think yeah, with him that's a big game for him. I think coming into this game, the way he threw his last two outings, I think he had a great feeling anyway, so just carrying it on, hopefully he can string together a long run throwing the ball like that.
On Weeks' home run:
It looked like a one iron. That's really what it looked like: It looked like a one iron.
On Braun and Fielder hitting home runs to the opposite field:
Yeah, and Rickie this year, was that his third opposite field? I mean for Prince? (Someone told him that all four have gone to the opposite field.) I think it's a great approach. I think that's why he's driving in so many runs. You get into that pull mode, you see how they defense him, most teams, so when he's going the other way, and Braunie too, how do you defense that? How do you pitch it? It's really tough to pitch to those guys because, when a guy can hurt you on an inside fastball, and he also can hurt you on an outside fastball, going to both parts of the park, there's really not a whole lot of relief as to where you can go.
On Erick Almonte:
Absolutely it was. He's doing pretty good, I just saw him. And I asked him 'What happened? Did you forget he was throwing over?' and he said 'I don't know. I must've just looked away.' There's balls flying around all over the place, that's why you try to have a pattern with how you do things, because I know that stuff can happen, and it just takes one guy turning his head one time and unfortunately, Counsell's accuracy was really good. And he could've been a foot off, it would've been nice. But he's doing really good, feeling better than he was earlier.