WASHINGTON — Braves quotes from Fredi Gonzlalez, Julio Teheran and Arodys Vizcaino after Friday’s 10-inning, 5-2 loss to the Nationals.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
Despite loss, were you at least encouraged by the improved pitching?
“As far as intensity, we were good to go. Freddie on that hustle double right off the bat, and we end up scoring a run there. I liked everything about the ballgame except the ending. I really did. You can’t fault that. And you know what I liked about the ending? We didn’t walk anybody. They got three hits to beat us. Right now, that’s a positive.”
On trying to get a two-inning save out of your best reliever, Vizcaino
“I didn’t want anybody else facing the middle of that lineup in the eighth inning. He’s our best guy, he’s going to face Harper, Zimmerman and Robinson. And at that point we still were undecided – if he goes out there and gives you a quick inning, then let him go back out there. If he doesn’t, then you mix and match, see what happens, see if you can get through the ninth. But my thinking, there was nobody else in that bullpen that I was going to let face those guys other than Vizcaino.”
On Teheran’s performance
“He pitched really well. Wiggled out of some situations. There was a situation there in the sixth inning where you could have taken him out of the game, but the way we’ve been going, it was his game. We were getting close to the pitch count mark, where he got tired (before), and three times through the lineup and that kind of stuff. But for me, it was his game to win or his game to lose, and he stepped up and gave us an hell of an opportunity to win the game today.”
Did you like the fire and emotion that Teheran showed a couple of times, the fist-pump?
“I saw a lot of fire from everybody. So that’s good. Great pitching performance. We needed more runs, we couldn’t get them.”
Seemed like all the buttons you pushed, intentional walks and that kind of thing, most or all of them worked, but still just didn’t score enough runs to win
“You’re right, we’ve got to go out and score runs. Two runs, one run, three runs, that doesn’t alleviate any of the pressure for that bullpen, or given them any wiggle room. Right now we’re not scoring runs. But I’m really pleased with our club after the thumping that we took yesterday, to come out today and pitch and play with some energy and enthusiasm. It was a fun baseball game that we played today.”
I don’t recall Markakis bunting once all season, so was that the reasoning in not having him bunt in ninth, you like his bat control and figure he can do more swinging?
“Yeah. I think the last time he bunted might have been his rookie season. He’s our best hitter, I don’t want to play a one-run game with our bullpen situation. I want to be able to give him a chance to maybe break it open, if he hits a double and we score two or three runs.”
On Pierzynski’s hit tying him for 10th on the all-time catchers’ hit lists
“And the first RBI (of the game), too, but the way. What a great career this guy’s had, and he’s not even done yet. I know we’ve used him, and probably used him too much at times. But what a great career. And he needs one more to break that tie for 10th. He’s been special, he’s been good for us, and hopefully he can break more milestones before the season ends.”
He could catch Johnny Bench for ninth around the All-Star break next year, pretty impressive company he’s keeping
“Is that the next guy (Bench)? Well, hopefully we’ll get a chance to witness it, because he’s been good.”
