Hearing from Storen, Gonzalez, LaRoche and Hairston after win over Phillies

The Nationals salvaged their series against the Phillies with a 3-2 win on Sunday. Left-hander Gio Gonzalez outdueled fellow southpaw Cole Hamels for the win. The offense was powered by two solo home runs from Adam LaRoche and a sacrifice fly from Scott Hairston. Drew Storen also earned his second save of the season after working a perfect ninth inning. The win could not have come at a better time as the Nats begin a three-game series with the Braves tomorrow night. Here's what the clubhouse had to say about the win to reporters in D.C. LaRoche: On how his elbow, back and flu symtpoms are: All of them are feeling better. Yeah, the back's been feeling pretty good. The last couple days, late in the game I started feeling a little bit of it. Not feeling it at the plate now and not nearly as bad on defense. Elbow's healing up, the flu's going away so feeling good. I don't think any every day player feels 100 percent at this time. If you feel 100 percent, you're probably not playing enough. Just that time of year. Little stuff, but all-in-all, for September I feel pretty good. On whether he has an explanation for his power numbers against Hamels: No, I think a lot of that was early and then he developed a cutter and a slider. Before he was basically three pitches to lefties and now he has a slider. Ever since he got that, he's been a lot tougher on me. It's just one of those days where he left pitches right over the plate. On the performance of Storen in the ninth inning: I'm sure it's big on a personal level. Knowing Drew, he's probably more excited on getting the job done for us and closing out that game. Avoiding the sweep there. He didn't have any room for error. Storen: On picking up his second save of the season: Gio threw a great game. Obviously, all the guys came out of the 'pen did a great job. Just kind of wrap up what those guys did. It's always good. Obviously it's a tight ballgame there, we needed that win. On the Nats' chance of winning a division title: It's exciting. It's a long marathon. It takes a lot of hard work. It's been a start since Day 1. We've have a great approach. We've got a great team and even better chemistry. We just have to finish it up now. On pitching in the ninth inning instead of the seventh: The only thing different is the run to the mound. Fans are real into it. ... You soak that in for a second and move on and lock in do what you need to do. Once I get going you tend to try to block some stuff out. Obviously, the explosion at the end was pretty incredible. On his warm-up routine: It's no different. I get down in the bullpen at the same time do the same thing to warm up. It's just sitting there waiting for the phone call. Fortunately, I've done pretty much every role down there. It doesn't change anything. Just get the call and now we go. On the upcoming series with the Braves: It's nice. You don't have to do any scoreboard watching the next couple days. I don't think there's such thing as a comfortable lead. This game's crazy. For us, we just got to keep playing the way we've been playing. Hairston: On his two long, loud outs against Hamels: Had the mindset of just get the ball to the outfield somehow. If you get it, it will go over the fence, if not you'll at least get a sac fly. But yeah, I guess everything turned out. On what LaRoche said to Hairston after the sacrifice fly: He was in disbelief too. Obviously he hit two out today. Coming from a guy that just hit two home runs and he's like 'I thought you got one.' I thought I did too. On success his against Hamels: I don't know. I really can't tell you. I see the ball pretty good against him. He has great stuff. I think this is the best I've ever seen him this year. I've faced him a bunch of times in the past. He's had every pitch working for him. He had a nasty cutter today. Kept his changeup down for the most part. His fastball, I think got up to 96 (mph) today. When he has his velocity and has his changeup to go with as well as a cutter. ... When he's doing all that, he's pretty tough to hit. Thank goodness we had Adam LaRoche in the lineup. He picked us up huge today. Hitting those two home runs that kept us in the ballgame. Gio pitched a great game. I think that was the factor there. Those two guys came up huge. Gonzalez: On his performance agains the Phillies: No walks? That's a good day then. I don't know, I felt great with the work of (Jose) Lobaton behind the dish. He called a great game, helped me just build confidence just throwing all my pitches. I think the one time I shook him off was the last at-bat with (Darin) Ruf. ... I learned my lesson. All-in-all you look at the positive. On defensive miscues by the Nats early in the game: In this game, you dwell on the little things, it's definitely going to bite you in the end. I felt confident with our defense. Jayson (Werth) made a nice play and saved me out of an inning. Obviously, Denard's (Span) the man, there's no doubt about that. He's one of the best center fielders in the game. Obviously, it was tough for both sides. On Storen closing: We got such great guys in the bullpen. From Sori (Rafael Soriano), Drew, Clip (Tyler Clippard), everyone. Even (Craig) Stammen could go out there and do a great job for us. Obviously, Drew's done that before. He's pitched great in the ninth inning. I've seen him pitch for three seasons now.