ANDRELTON SIMMONS
On the turn of events in late innings:
“Yeah I mean at least we left it all out there. We played our butts off. We battled back in the game. If we had more innings, we might have come back and won the game but unfortunately they ended it with a walk-off.”
On the battle with Papelbon:
“Yeah he made some tough pitches. I was looking for something to drive. I was looking for a mistake. Fouled off a tough one. And I gained a good pitch to hit and luckily I got too it.”
On emotions from what you did and shortly after that:
“Try to stay calm late in the game. I learned that from Chipper last year. Just no matter what, just stay calm. In big situations stay calm. You’re at your best when you’re calm. I tried that today and it worked out really well.”
On saw him do that to Papelbon:
“I saw him do that a couple times at home, walk it off and all of that. Definitely learned something from it.”
On the rundown:
“You can either beat yourself up or tell yourself if you make it, you would have put your team in a good position but unfortunately it’s a bad play if you get caught and I got caught. Got to keep playing, got to let it go.”
On still in good situation:
“You definitely want to win the games. Every game we have we come out trying to win but you’ve got to look at the positives. We battled back each game, even when we were behind, so that’s a good thing.”
On if that’s different not here we go again:
“No I don’t think so. It’s definitely not a good feeling to lose like yesterday we lost a game. we came back today everybody had energy. We played pretty good but they played better.
On home run binge at a good time, ride it out:
“They say they come in bunches. I’m feeling good right now, feeling strong. I’m seeing the ball well, worked on my swing the whole year and it’s finally getting to where I want it to be and hopefully I’ll keep it going.”
ALEX WOOD
On if took steps from last start:
“From a small standpoint, I thought I did some good things in my work in between starts. It’s kind of frustrating. I haven’t really had back-to-back starts, or a back-to-back week and a half like I’ve had these last two starts the whole year, really at any level, so it’s really frustrating. Right now we’re in September, trying to finish off strong and clinch the division. And from a personal standpoint and a team standpoint, it’s frustrating from both sides because I’m not doing exactly what I want to do when I go out there. The most frustrating thing is just not execution. I pride myself on making pitches when I need to and these last two starts and really tonight, to Ruiz and then to Galvis, I didn’t make pitches when I needed to. I had them kind of where I wanted them and just made mistakes. And they made you pay. You’re facing some of the best hitters in the world and you can’t make mistakes like that to those guys with runners in scoring position. That’s kind of what it comes down to tonight is execution and it wasn’t there for me.”
On both two-strikes pitches to Ruiz, Galvis:
“It was the exact same thing I was trying to hard in to both guys and just left it over the plate. It was one of those things where those aren’t mistakes you can make at this level, so it’s frustrating. I’ve got to learn from it and come back and get ready to go for next time.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Simmons’ at-bat in the ninth:
“I thought he had some great at-bats all game. And to do that there to tie the game up, play extra innings and three, four pitches later they do it right back at us. That’s how you manage that fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth inning when you’re down one run because stuff like that can happen. We did, we battled, tied the ballgame up and then that ball up over the plate – Freddy Galvis got us and we’re walking off.”
On before Simmons’ swing, offense hard to come by:
“Yeah we’ve had some opportunities – that we’ve had. We haven’t gotten that bloop single or that ground ball that gets through the infield with the right guys at the plate. Sometimes you go up and down through the course of a season you’ll get some of those games. Just keep plugging away, keep putting people on base, maybe somebody will come up and split a gap or something.”
On Wood tonight:
“I think OK. I think from the other outing, I thought he did OK. A couple of pitches up over the strike zone to some of their younger guys or guys that are not in the middle of the lineup but other than that I thought he did OK.”
On a play on there when Simmons broke too soon in seventh:
“No, he was just trying to steal third. Here’s a young kid, one run down trying to get a good jump and if De Fratus throws that ball over the plate I think he has a great jump but I think De Fratus smelled it a little bit, did the inside move and then got into the rundown there.”
On Downs’ fracture:
“Yeah on his right hand, which is good. It’s not his throwing hand. So we’ll play it by ear. I think he could put his hand in a glove and play with a little bit of a splint or something or tape it up, I think he’ll be fine. We’re just going to call it day to day. I spoke to him before I did the press conference here and he goes ‘we’ll see how it feels tomorrow and go from there.’”
On Freeman’s two-run bases loaded single:
“Two big runs to get us back on the board. We had an opportunity to get a shutdown inning there. We didn’t, let them right back in it. Those innings are important. In the course of the game you don’t think much of them but you look back, those two runs after we scored two, it’s big right now in the ninth inning. Those are the things that a young pitcher has got to fight through – shutdown innings, first innings, decision-innings, those type of innings that come up in the big league level all the time.”
On what lineup will look like tomorrow:
“Probably the same guys. We’ll run some of the same guys. Maybe being a day game we’ll give Mac a day off, but other than that I think everybody else is ready to keep coming.”
On if don’t believe in using Kimbrel on road in a tie game:
“I’ve done it both ways. I’ve done it every single way, and I’m not going to say I don’t believe in it, it’s just one of those things that it all depends on the lineup coming up and that kind of stuff.”
On if figured Garcia could go a couple innings:
“He could go a couple innings and he’s veteran enough that he could maneuver. Just a pitch out over the plate.”
