FREDI GONZALEZ
On Johnson rebounding from rough day:
“He’s one of those guys that when he has a bad at-bat, it goes away, he goes out and plays defense. He doesn’t let it carry over. It was a tough day until that last time, and came up big three-run homer there, big spot for a day that was kind of weird. Started kind of weird. Good baseball game a 1-1 game and for him to hit a three-run homer was good.”
On Heyward:
“Jason went to the hospital. He’s there. I just talked to Bubba ( trainer Jeff Porter) two seconds ago and he’s there. We probably won’t know any more than that probably until we get up in the air. He’s staying behind, Bubba and Jason are both staying behind. Hopefully cross our fingers that it’s nothing major.”
On if talked to Jason before he left:
“He never lost consciousness. He was talking the whole time when he got hit with the ball and then just before they took him to the hospital he popped his head in the dugout and said bye to some of the guys and I had a chance to talk to him briefly after that. I was just on the phone with Bubba and I heard him in the background mumble something, like we’ve got to go get ‘em or something. Hopefully he’s fine. We’ll keep our fingers crossed he can join us tomorrow in St. Louis.”
On if concern is concussion or jaw or both:
“I’m sure when you get hit in the head everything comes into play, teeth, jaw, concussion. Hopefully the least of the three may be some teeth instead of a broken jaw or concussion but we’ll let the doctors put him through the paces there at the hospital and keep our fingers crossed.”
On good thing its last trip to ballpark:
“It’s not the ballpark. Sometimes it’s just a matter of freak stuff happening. I know the last time when Huddy was here the people here at the stadium, the paramedics, the team doctors from the Mets were outstanding. I came in here right after the inning and there were two doctors in there looking at him from the Mets. They sure were good to tend to him.”
On if he was bleeding when Gonzalez saw him:
“Not from outside, inside, he kept spitting out blood.”
On Wood:
“Woody was good. He just got in a situation we got second and third and you have kind of a gut feeling it was going to be a low-scoring game and took a shot there (pinch-hitting) trying to get some runs for him, but he was really really good.”
On fastest he’s seen Freeman run:
“Yeah. I haven’t seen a replay. But the lack of crowd noise I think Jerry (Layne) got it right. We look at it from five different angles and Jerry’s got to make a call right now. They usually get that play right at first base.”
On Justin’s status:
“Keep getting better. He was available today if we had to use him there as a pinch hitter, so hopefully tomorrow he’ll keep making good progress in that direction and maybe get to play.”
On Elliot Johnson:
“I know he’s a good player. I know we had a chance to get him off waivers and he’s a guy who gives us some depth in the infield. Guy can steal you a base, switch-hitter. I think he’ll join us in St. Louis tomorrow.”
ALEX WOOD
On the outing:
“I thought I competed and battled well. It was probably of all the starts iv’e head up here this year, in terms of my stuff it was probably my worse one from that aspect but I thought I made some pitches when I needed to especially in that fifth inning, after the leadoff double. That’s all you can ask. These kind of days are the ones that test you and show your true colors when you battle through when you don’t really have that great of stuff. I felt like I was able to do that. that’s a big part of the confidence thing for me too knowing that I’m capable of getting through days like today when I don’t have my best stuff.”
On what he meant but not great a stuff:
“Just everything, I wasn’t commanding my change-up very well and that stems from my fastball. My fastball command was so-so and I didn’t throw that many breaking balls until later in the game. it was one of those things where kind of a mixture of everything. I made pitches when I had to and kept it close and we were able to scratch one across and C.J. had the big homer in the 10th. It was a good day, as long as you get the win that’s all that matters right?”
On Mets know you better than any at this point:
“Yeah that was my third time throwing against them today. It’s definitely a little different lineup when David Wright’s not in there. They’ve got some guys that can swing it and are very good hitters too, Murphy and Satin and some of those guys. It was a good day.”
On composure after Heyward’s injury:
“It was tough. I guess one kind of got away from Niese and caught him in a bad spot, especially a guy like Jason who’s been killing it lately. That’s definitely a little bit of a blow. But at the same time we’ll just wait and hear what happens with him, hopefully he’ll be back here sooner than later and just got to keep thinking about him.”
CHRIS JOHNSON
On frustrating day before 10th:
“It was a frustrating first four at-bats. Niese carved me up pretty good and then Germen came in the game and shoved it up my butt. It was a tough day until that last at-bat I was trying to learn from those last four at-bats, just try to shorten my swing a little bit and get a good pitch to hit. I was going out of the zone. I was long on pitches that were in the zone all day. I was just trying to stay with it, that’s just grinding, that’s all.”
On the team grinding with what happened to Heyward:
“Yeah we’re all still trying to get some information on what happened. That’s our guy, that’s our dude so didn’t look great but hopefully he’s all right and we get him back shortly. But yeah we’ve got a bunch of grinders on this team. We’re not going to give up, whether we’re losing, winning, we’re going to keep trying to score runs and get wins.”
On another emotional game here:
“I think it’s just kind of a fluke thing that happened twice while we were here. I don’t think it’s any sort of curse or anything like that. It’s baseball, man, some things happen. There’s no way Niese was trying to do that and I’m sure he feels terrible. Hopefully J Hey is better and we can get him back out here.”
On home run pitch from Burke:
“We had faced him before, usually guys from down under there, I’m just trying to get the first pitch out over the plate that I can. I was trying to be aggressive and hit something hard. Sinker middle of the plate.”
JUSTIN UPTON
On if he chance to talk to Heyward:
“Not really. We were in the training room together and I asked him how he was doing. Obviously at the time, he wasn’t too excited about it.”
On thoughts when it happened:
“It’s scary man. You never want to see anybody get hit above the shoulders and especially in the face, so obviously we’re hoping for the best result comes out of it. He’s back soon.”
On poor luck for Heyward who’s hitting his stride:
“You hate to see it happen at all but especially when he’s been contributing so much to us and he’s kind of been a spark for us. Like I said, hopefully the best result comes out of it and it’s not too bad and he’s back with us soon.”
On how his back feels:
“I was continuing to get treatment and I think I should be fine for the next series.”
