FREDI GONZAELZ
On things catching up to Minor in the fifth:
“I’d like to have one pitch back really. That was the 0-2 pitch to Dominguez is a three-run homer. That’s the one that you look back over the course of the game when you’re dissecting it and you go ‘We get that, we keep it within one or two runs, it’s a different story.’ All of a sudden it became a four-run game there. And it was an 0-2 pitch. That makes it even tougher.”
On if trend of Minor’s home runs allowed troubling:
“No. It’s balls coming right over the plate. They’re usually a two-seamer, especially to right-handed hitters he pounds that fastball in on them. That balls stays in there. Looking back at some of those pitches you’re talking about, the ball gets right back over the barrel too much.”
On some talented young players for Houston:
“Bo’s done a nice job with those young players. They’ve got some guys that are good baseball players. Altuve. Springer. Singleton and Carter, that can run you out of the ballpark. The shortstop that’s here, Villar, is pretty good. I heard about the other kid that just got hurt four or five days. They’ve got a good thing going and Bo’s done a terrific job keeping those guys sharp, playing that many young players.”
On manufactured run in first what you envision when things go well:
“It’s kind of like the stuff we led off with last night, good situational hitting. So we come out this afternoon, we do the same thing, you go, ‘OK, we’re going to be able to put some big numbers up today.’ Cosart kept us off-balance with his breaking pitch. We had a chance first and second, nobody out, with the meat of the order up and he wiggled out of it. We didn’t get any runs. We weren’t able to add on.”
On Cosart:
“Early in the game we were pretty patient. I think command on his fastball left him at times. He was able to make pitches with his breaking pitch, more than a couple times in big situations. You could see where that fastball command is not as good as he wants it to be but his secondary pitches are pretty good.”
On still winning the series:
“That’s what we shoot for. I talked about this in Washington. It’s funny how this game of ours is. You shoot for winning two out of three. We win two out of three and we lose the last one and you feel terrible. If we would have won the first one, lost the second one and won today, we would have been happy. In Washington the same thing. We won the first two, lose the second two and it’s ‘what have you done for me lately.’ But we won the series and that’s what we shoot for, go on to the Philly series and try to win that one.”
On impression after three games with BJ hitting leadoff:
“Fine. He did fine. I think he got on base every single time, scored some runs. I see a little different game. I see him trying to bunt for base hits. We’re going to let it run its course.”
On if think Altuve stealing bases might have disrupted Minor’s rhythm in fifth:
“I don’t know. For me, the guys that are base stealers are going to steal bases. The other guys are going to disrupt you, if Singleton steals or one of the other guys you’re not expecting to steal bases. But Altuve’s got what 30 stolen bases? I don’t think so.”
MIKE MINOR
On a start where one pitch cost him:
“I think it was the inning. I was 0-2 to Altuve and made a decent pitch up. He still hit it. And then to walk Springer and then I made two OK pitches to Dominguez and I looked back on it and two-seamer ran back over the middle of the plate and he kind of cheated a little bit and got a good one.”
On how he’d describe way he felt in terms of command:
“Not that great. I was missing a lot of balls middle and I was getting lucky, they barreled a couple that they just popped up. So I don’t know if it was a matter of time, because I felt like I was battling pretty good. Changeup was OK and the backdoor slider but later on, they took away the curveball because I kept spiking it in the dirt. I think that led to the Springer walk. I got Dominguez earlier in the day with the strikeout in and I went two more in there, and he swung through them. And that was four-seamers, and the last one was a two-seamer that came back.”
On if look at homers allowed as a problem:
“I don’t look at it as a problem if I’m still only giving up one or two runs a game and still going six or seven. I think it’s a problem whenever I don’t go six or seven and I give up more than three runs. That’s not a quality start. That’s when I really worry about it. But it’s obviously you don’t want to give up any home runs, but it’s not the fact that ‘hey, he gave up another home run.’ I really don’t worry about it, as long as I make pitches and get out of there with less than three runs and try to go more than six innings.”
On this being a rare instance when the homer did hurt:
“Yeah that’s why I said I don’t think the home run really killed me. It was the fact of getting two guys on.”
On if Altuve bothered you when he got on base:
“No, I know he’s stolen a lot of bags this year. I knew he was going to go. That’s why we kept on picking over. I tried to slide step a little bit and then once he got to second, I didn’t really worry about him because there were two outs.”
JUSTIN UPTON
On the Dominguez home run changing the game:
“We were playing a tight game and they blew it open. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
On what Cosart was doing to keep them off-balance:
“He’s got two plus pitches that he was mixing up and we just couldn’t solve him.”
On manufacturing runs last night and to start today:
“Things just didn’t go our way. We’ve, for the most part, tried to play a little bit of small ball with our run-scoring struggles, and we’ve done a pretty good job of it. Just today it didn’t work out for us, and we didn’t get the big ball either. It just didn’t happen for us.”
On if series got them back on track, heading to Philadelphia:
“I hope so. For the most part. We’re above .500 on this road trip. It’s going to be a long one. We’ve still got four more games. It’s going to be important for us to go into Philly and try to win that series also. With a split in DC and a series win here and a series win in Philly, and I think going back home we should be pretty confident.”
