CHICAGO — Braves quotes from Alex Wood, Justin Upton, Chris Johnson and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Friday's walk-off loss to the Cubs.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Heyward’s two doubles in late innings including ninth
“He had a good afternoon with a couple of doubles in the left-center gap. We kept battling back. We had some opportunities to put big numbers up a couple of times, and that didn’t happen. So sometimes you end up in situations like we had there in the ninth inning.”
Uncharacteristic of Simmons, that four-pitch walk with bases loaded
“He’s a young kid. That’s probably the first time you’ve seen him do that. He came back and got himself straightened out and got out of that inning, then gave us the next inning. When they pinch-hit for Olt with the lefty (Valbuena) we felt pretty good. That’s right up his alley, facing left-handed hitters. I wasn’t expecting a walk. He’s been so dominant, so good.”
On Schafer
“Schafer had a great day. He stole three bags, got on base, played good defense. And B.J.’s been doing that in the leadoff spot. I’m happy with those guys at the top of the order. Now we’ve got to keep the line moving, and we will.”
On Bethancourt getting another big hit, seems pretty composed up there for a rookie
“He sure does. He got in a situation there with the tying run in the ninth inning, and he delivered. He really did. I’m happy for him. Really happy about his defense and calling a game, handling that situation. I’m glad to see the bat’s come along too.”
On Alex Wood
“I thought Woody was OK, I really did. The sixth inning we tried to get out of it without giving up any run, but I thought he did OK.”
On Bethancourt getting hit by a foul tip that glanced off his chest protector shoulder pad and hit him in head
“That’s back-to-back days. I think last night he got nicked near the cheek bone, off his shoulder pad. Today it went off his shoulder pad and hit him behind his ear. Bubba checked him throughout the course of the game. I don’t seen any concussion syndrome or anything like that coming out of it.”
** CHRIS JOHNSON
On Cubs pitcher Arrieta
“He’s real good. Throws a lot of strikes. He’s got good velocity, he’s got the cutter that works really good, he’s got the big curveball, the sinker – he’s good. He definitely keeps you guessing. He kept us off-balance.”
You guys got a few runs against him, did you feel like you could’ve had a couple more?
“When a guy’s going that good (Arrieta had 0.99 ERA in previous seven starts), three runs is usually pretty good. We don’t want to be taking too much away from him saying we could have got a whole bunch more. We kind of took advantage of the opportunities that he gave us, but he was pretty good today.”
On Shae Simmons, bound to have a hiccup like that every once in a while?
“Yeah, absolutely. Everybody does that. He’s been pretty good; he’s been in the zone a lot. He’s been a strong point of our bullpen. That was just one batter. After that I thought he was pretty good.”
On Bethancourt getting another big hit
“That’s great. He’s shown he should be up here. He’s swinging the bat well. He’s calling a good games, which I think is first and foremost, especially for the pitching staff. And he’s showing the Braves that this is where he should be.”
**ALEX WOOD
on his secondary pitches today
“I thought I had all three (pitches) working today. I’ve been battling through some stuff. It stinks how it ended, but I thought we battled hard and scraped for some runs. I thought we played pretty well.”
Your first big-league hit came at a price, getting hit in the back by throw. Did that affect you on mound next inning, after getting plunked and running the bases?
“No, I can’t sit here and tell you that affected me. (Laughs.) It’s one of those things where I was just trying to make something happen, get something going. Luckily we were able to score a run. I’m supposed to go back out there and get a shutdown (inning) after we score. It didn’t happen. I end up giving up two runs that inning. Something that just can’t happen.”
On hitting Castillo, the catcher, with a pitch to load the bases
“You’ve got a guy on the ropes and you try to go in late in the count … he was on the dish pretty good, but you can’t hit that guy right there. Especially when he’s on the ropes like that.”
On the backbreaker
“The groundball single by Coghlan, most of those probably doesn’t get through. You throw a first-pitch breaking ball and then you go in sinker on his hands, get a broken bat and ends up dribbling a ground ball through. I think that was the biggest thing right there. That changed the game. Typically you hope for a double play out of that, and it ends up squeaking through. I think that’s the decider right there. I thought I had him set up pretty good. But sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don’t.”
**JUSTIN UPTON
On having some more scoring chances against Arrieta
“We put ourselves in position to score runs and he gets paid to get us out. So, I mean, you go up there and put together an at-bat and see what happens.”
On what makes him so tough lately
“He’s got plus-stuff. You saw the radar gun – he’s throwing mid-90s, he’s got a cutter, a sharp curveball. He’s got great stuff. I think we did a fairly good job against him, but he kept his pitch count down, which kept him in the game a little bit longer. And he was pretty tough on us.”
Has Bethancourt impressed you?
“Yeah, He’s swung the bat well, something I don’t think any of us expected so early. He’s putting together at-bats and getting hits for us. He’s done a great job, offensively and defensively.”
