EVAN GATTIS
On if made home run better after the interference call:
“Yeah I was mad because I don’t know, I just don’t like the rule. I understand. But do you really think if he’s that late, it sounded bad, but if somebody’s that late that they’re going to put it in play. It should be a foul tip, but whatever. I made an adjustment, scooted back and I think it happened again. I mean, I’ll be way back.”
On whether he thought his ball was gone off the bat:
“I thought so but I topped it a little bit.”
On if similar to a couple home runs last year:
“Yeah it was weird, it was like the first one that I ever, as soon as I hit it I was like “oh” (like) Perkins (of the Twins last year).”
On emotions after such a wacky game:
“It was crazy. Yeah all kinds of stuff, yeah, nervous, the second time in a row, extra innings, everything like that, it was good to get a win.”
On Teheran:
“Yeah he’s good. He’s got two different fastballs like that you can set people up with. Even in fastball counts, you can use them both in different ways, backwards and forwards. You can get faster, you can get slower, but it’s a great tool to have to have two fastballs with the two-seam (spin) that his has and the four-seam with his life, it’s like it gets another gear halfway there.”
On seeing Walden out of jam and Kimbrel striking out side motivate comeback:
“Yeah but at the time for me, I’m disappointed in myself because of the catcher’s interference and all that, to lose the lead always disappointing.”
On if as thrilling as other walkoffs:
“More. It was late, I was 0-for-8, maybe 0-for-11, and I hit some balls hard. I lined out to right center in New York on a cold day that might be a home run or a double, hits some balls hard and didn’t have much to show for it. And I was excited to stay with my approach and have some success today.”
On if feels different running the bases knowing he was going to get mobbed:
“Yes. I hate to say this but I was pretending like what am I going to do when I run the bases. Whatever. I always like to imagine just before, like when I was in the minor leagues I imagined myself jogging around the bases, same big dumb animal. Just running around the bases in the big leagues instead of the minors. I think that’s part of it.”
CRAIG KIMBREL
On start of the ninth:
“Any time you have a guy 0-2, you can’t walk him. I just tried to do too much, and I ended up walking him. Leadoff walks kill you and it ended up killing us tonight.”
On if took a while to find the breaking ball:
“A little bit. I was trying to throw it more for strikes than just trying to throw it and see what it does, and that’s what I started doing. Leadoff walk and unfortunate with the catcher’s interference. I mean that’s one of those things that just happen. And then I had a good at-bat against Dietrich. That was a good battle and I left a ball a little bit too far up away and he drove it the other way. I was able to work out of it and we were able to come in and hold them the next inning and Gattis comes up and hits the walkoff. I’m just glad we won.”
On if shoulder is having any effect on ability to air it out:
“No. I can go out one night and throw 95, 96 and then the next night throw 98, 99, I really can’t control that. I’m just trying to throw strikes and get the guys out.”
On how he felt:
“I felt great. Better than I had before my rest, so that’s a good sign. Go from here.”
On the layoff having an impact:
“Yeah but that’s no excuse for going out there and giving up runs. I’ve still got to do my job and I didn’t do that tonight. But we came back, the guys rallied and we won the game so that’s good. I can go out there and blow the save and we lose, it hurts a lot worse than if we come back and win, so I’m glad we won tonight.”
On that’s part of mentality to hold it right there:
“Yeah definitely. You give up a run but my job’s not over. My job is to get us in the dugout with a tie ball game and give us a chance to win.”
JULIO TEHERAN
On feeling good from the pickoff move on:
“Yeah I was trying to get outs however I could, and that’s what I think when I get runners on base.”
On thrilling game:
“Yeah, I didn’t have the win but we won the final game.”
On adjusting after two-strike hits early:
“Yeah early in the game I was using my fastball (with two strikes) but I see that didn’t work. I came back with my sliders that I got the most strikeouts. It was working really good today.”
On the run Braves starters are on:
“Every time we go out there we just try to keep our team in the game and we’re doing a great job.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Gattis’ flair for the dramatic:
“Well he had a good at-bat there. That ball was hit pretty good. And Danny also, to lead off that inning. Those guys don’t miss fastballs. And you make a mistake out over the plate, that’s what he can do. The bottom of the ninth inning didn’t start the way we wanted it to. But I thought Craig came back and rallied pretty good to get the last couple hitters. You walk a guy and then we get one of those rare catcher’s interference putting guys on base. Dietrich had a tough at-bat RBI double but I tell you what he did a nice job getting out of that inning without any more runs scoring.”
On Walden in the eighth:
“We put him behind the 8-ball there and he did a nice job getting out of there. These last inning heroics, overshadow the job Julio did. He gave us seven strong innings and was in line for the win and usually we convert that win for him.”
On if feeling that call would get overturned:
“Yeah from the replay I was watching on the big jumbo scoreboard and from the ones that have been getting overturned in this young season, I pretty much thought that was going to get overturned.”
On if Kimbrel’s three strikeouts shows you he’s fine:
“Yeah he’s fine. We walked him, with the catcher’s interference and we put him in a tough situation but like I said those last couple, two or three hitters, is the old Craig Kimbrel and he’s fine.”
On another good outing for Varvaro:
“Yeah and we were kind of feeling it a little bit after the 14-inning game yesterday. We were going to ask him to pitch a couple innings today and he did a terrific job inducing Mathis into a double play there and getting him out of that jam.”
On if bunting Heyward to play it textbook there:
“I left it up to him. Whatever he wanted to do, whatever he felt comfortable doing there. You don’t want to play extra-inning games. And chances of scoring a run from third base is greater than the one scoring from second base, especially with a guy, Marmol. With a man on third base maybe you take one of his breaking pitches away or his split because he doesn’t want to bounce it and the get the runner to score there. So that was fine. I had no problems there whatsoever.”
On Teheran’s 49 pitches in last five innings:
“I think he came out 92, 93. We were going to try to keep him around that anyway. If his turn wouldn’t have come up, I think you can probably get another inning out of him. I think after the first couple he got stronger.”
