CHRIS JOHNSON
On Smith being effectively wild:
“With his fastball yeah. He was also good at throwing his change-up for strikes, throwing his curveball for strikes. He wasn’t all wild. His fastball was a little erratic which was tough but he used it to his advantage. He threw his slider for strikes. We were caught off guard by his fastball. It was a little around the zone and did a good job. Tip your hat to him.”
On offensive woes out the window, heading to Washington:
“I don’t think it matters the way we’re going, whether we’re home, away, we’re still in a good spot. There’s no panic in this locker room. So we know going into Washington, we win the series, we win the division. So that’s pretty cool. Go in there and win some games and see if we can get this thing over with.”
On how crucial to go ahead and clinch:
“It’s good to get it over with. It’s good to clinch the division and go to the playoffs as soon as you can. Then we can go from there, work on some things, but we’ve got the type of team that guys want to go out there, finish the year hard, and still put together a good year. We’re just going to try to clinch in Washington, keep this thing going and maybe get a day off here and there after that but other than that, we just want to playing and try to get better and try to make sure we’re ready for postseason.”
On no Strasburg or Gio Gonzalez scheduled to pitch this series:
“They still have good arms that they’ll throw at us. And their bats have been hot lately so we’ll have to shut them down.”
EVAN GATTIS
On Teheran:
“Just a couple pitches there – one to Headley was costly. We didn’t swing the bat for him either. So the other guy threw pretty well but I thought Julio threw well.”
On Smith:
“He’s got a live arm, live fastball, not too much command thing but just kind of wildly effective, but I thought he threw well, did make some pitches when he had to.”
On tough time to be struggling offensively:
“Any game. I don’t know why there’s more importance on this because we’re trying to clinch – why it would be any different. We’re trying to win the game today and you can’t win if you don’t score.”
On going iton Washington where they’re one of hottest teams:
“We’ve also played them a lot. I think our record is pretty good against them.”
On if going on this trip with mindset we’ll come back division champions:
“Yeah I think it’s kind of been the idea around this place the whole year. It’s always been – we’re coming at ya. Yeah we lost the game today. We play tomorrow.”
JULIO TEHERAN
On the game:
“Yeah I was concentrating on the game. It was a good pitching match-up. I was trying to do my work.”
On if control issue in the sixth:
“I felt good. I felt like I had my best stuff today. I felt like all my pitches were working. It was one of those games that (somebody) has to lose.”
On how responds to challenge when other guys no-hitter going:
“I knew that he was throwing a no-hitter. I was trying to do my work and just keep the team in the game and wait until we get a base hit.”
On if slider to Headley was where you wanted it:
“Yeah that was the pitch that I wanted to throw. I asked him also if it was a good pitch and he told me that it was a good pitch. I said ‘OK you got me this time.’ It was one of those days you have to just look up there.”
On if Gattis going through signs more than you usually would:
“That was the first time that I was throwing to him. I feel good. The first time yeah, but we got there.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On tough matching up with unfamiliar pitcher:
“That a little bit, and we just didn’t score any runs the whole series. We scored five runs in three games. The guy was OK. I’m not going to say he was really, really good. He threw some quality strikes when he threw them in the strike zone. He was comfortably wild. He threw some balls out of the strike zone and down in the strike zone and we just couldn’t get a good read on him. Bottom line, I’ve seen this club beat really, really good pitchers and we didn’t get anything going the whole afternoon.”
On if Teheran missing location in sixth, had been cruising:
“I don’t know. Maybe the ball got over the plate on Headley. I know they stole the bag and got a base hit but I thought he pitched well enough for him to deserve a better opportunity to win the ballgame. He gives up four runs. I’ve seen our club at times score six and he gets the win. And we didn’t do that today for him.”
On Washington being one of hottest teams in baseball:
“They’re swinging it pretty good. As long as we pitch, I think our bats will come around because they have all year. we’ve gone through sometimes some valleys offensively and then out of nowhere or all of a sudden we run off 14 straight, or a good seven in a row, or something like that and swing the bats really well. Looking into the next few weeks, that’s what we’re looking for. Get back swinging the bats, scoring some runs offensively.”
On if could help focus, facing team in Washington trying to get to playoffs, raucous crowds:
“I think so. I think any time you play a division opponent it always had a little bit different feel to it, little different juices. We’ve got Michael (Minor) going tomorrow. Should be a good matchup there. I like our guys. Just get our bats going again.”
