SEATTLE — Braves quotes from Tommy La Stella, Alex Wood, Gerald Laird and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Mariners.
**TOMMY LA STELLA
On whether it was a difficult play, to get out there and try to make the catch
“No. I’ve got to make that play. Every time. It sucks. Let your team down in a big situation, obviously you don’t want that. It’s unfortunate. Can’t pick and choose when you make errors. It’s part of the game just like anything else, and I’ve got to move on from it and come back ready tomorrow.”
Did you think you had it the whole way, until it bounced off your glove?
“Yeah, I felt find going after it. It’s just one of those things, you get out there and it’s not in the spot you anticipated, it bangs off your glove. It is what it is, at this point. I mean it’s an error, it’s part of the game just like base hits and home runs. I mean, you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
On how tough Hernandez was after getting a lead and starting to pound the strike zone
“Yeah, that guy has got good stuff, obviously. You look at his numbers, they’re very indicative of the stuff that he has. Anytime you’re facing a guy with stuff like that and he’s pounding the zone with all three pitches, you’re going to have a tough night. And obviously you can’t spot a guy like that three unearned runs, so I take full responsibility for that and it sucks, but you move on from it and come back tomorrow.”
Got to be a rough feeling out there
“Obviously it doesn’t feel good.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On the La Stella dropped pop-up, was there miscommunication, should Jason have called for it?
“I didn’t think so. I mean you’re talking about Jason coming a long ways there. And you know him, if he could get there you know he would have caught it, or he would have called him off.
“You knew going in against (Felix Hernandez), whoever blinked… We dropped the ball there. Just a physical error. Just one of those things, and it ended up costing us three runs. It’s just sometimes the way stuff’s going. We battled, scored first, and Morrison gets an RBI single there, but Woody almost got out of the inning. I thought he pitched terrific, gave us every opportunity to win the ballgame, and we didn’t win it, because you give up two or three unearned runs against Felix, you’re up against it.”
On Simmons’ ankle
“Right now we’re calling it day-to-day. Just one of those freak things. He’s covering third base on the throw to the plate and rolls it on the third base. We’re just calling it day-to-day. He’s probably going to be sore tomorrow, it’ll be a short turnaround, so maybe the off day on Thursday will give him plenty of time for this weekend.”
On Justin Upton throwing over everybody to the backstop and allowing 2 runners to advance
“We’ve got to hit the cutoff man there. There’s a play at the plate and you get excited, and he ball just got away a little there.”
On Wood’s performance
“A day and a half ago he was sick (flu-like symptoms) and almost didn’t make this start. Our trainers did a hell of a job getting him prepared as best he could for this start. I’m sure he didn’t feel 100 percent, but he gave us a hell of an outing against one of the premier pitchers in major league baseball.”
On Bonifacio’s performance
“He brings a little energy. He made a nice play on a couple of balls in left-center field, on a line drive. But that’s what he is. A guy you can move around to different positions and play him, and he gives you a good at-bat.”
More on Wood’s illness
“I got a text or email yesterday that he was sick. Real sick, throwing up and all that kind of stuff. Bubba (head trainer Jeff Porter) got him through it.”
**GERALD LAIRD
On Wood’s outing
“He threw the ball well. He went out there and battled. Had a little bad luck, but for the most part he threw the ball really well. For obviously not feeling real well, going out there and taking the ball, I mean he threw a heck of a game, good enough to get a W today.
After the two-run error by La Stella, your chat with Wood
“I went out there to just calm him down. He said he was doing good, I said let’s just try to get through this inning and see what happens. He made a pitch and they hit a little ground ball up the middle to score another run, but other than that he threw the ball really well today. He kept them off-balance, made some pitches when he needed to.”
On jumping out to a 1-0 lead against Hernandez
“We were able to get a run across against a great pitcher and give Woody a lead. He threw the ball well. We just had that one rough inning. That’s the tough part about this game, when you play a team like Seattle and they have their ace on the mound. You’ve got play pretty much a flawless game and get some timely hitting. We threw the ball well, we just had that one hiccup. And once Felix got the lead, you saw him go to work.”
What was Hernandez doing that made him so tough?
“It seemed like when he got that lead, they smell blood in the water and they good ones know how to pitch with the lead. He just kept pounding the strikes, he wasn’t fallin behind (in counts). Once he got th lead, it was strike 1, strike 2 … strike 1, strike 2. When you go in a hole (get behind in count) against a guy like that, it makes for a tough at-bat.”
On Teheran pitching tomorrow, importance of winning to avoid winless trip
“It’s going to be huge. I mean, it’s not the best road trip we’ve ever been on, and we all understand that. But if we can just try to squeeze out a win and try to get something positive going to head home before the off day and a big stretch at home, I think it would help. We’ve got a guy on the mound that we want out there in Julio. He’s our guy and we have to come out and play a good game and hopefully jump on them early and give him some runs so Julio can go to work.”
**ALEX WOOD
On being sick a little more than 24 hours earlier, flu-like symptoms
“That’s nothing we need to talk about. Everybody plays sick, plays hurt. No reason to go into any of it.”
How good did you feel until the error and three unearned runs in 4th inning
“It’s hard to really even talk about it. I mean, it’s one of those things were baseball’s a tough game. It’s a mental game, it’s a physical game. I can handle physical (mistakes) on my end or anybody else’s. The thing about it is, if Tommy whiffs it completely (if it misses his glove) it’s four earned runs in the book. So it’s hard to point fingers. There’s not one guy in this clubhouse who doesn’t come to the park and work their butt off every day and come here and grind it out and try to get us back on track. We’re right there. I think we’re close, and it’s just a matter of time before we turn that corner and right the ship and get going in the right direction.”
Did you feel like there was almost no room for error facing Felix Hernandez?
“No matter who I’m facing I don’t feel like there’s room for error at this level. You can’t make mistakes. I think I gave five free passes, if you include the hit-by-pitch. That’s stuff that can’t happen, not at this level, not against anybody. I was fortunate to do the little bit of damage control that I was able to do.”
