SAN DIEGO — Braves quotes from Mike Minor, David Hale, Freddie Freeman and manager Fredi Gonzalez after the Braves’ 10-1 loss to the Padres in Friday’s series opener.
**MIKE MINOR
Frustrating night, especially given the work you’ve been doing with Roger to try to get straightened out?
“Yeah, for sure. It’s been frustrating all year. I’m just trying to battle. Tonight Roger came out there and asked me, ‘Are you going to battle through this?’ And I said, yeah, I’m not giving up. But it’s going to be week to week, I guess. I just can’t really get a rhythm. I thought I had a pretty good game last week, then faced the same Padres team and they had 20-some hits or whatever it was. I think they were pretty locked in tonight.”
Any reason you went to your curveball so late tonight?
“That was pretty much the last pitch that they hadn’t hit yet. We threw a lot of … even the fastballs in, they were either balls or they would foul them off. And then that’s when two balls middle-in to Medica, fastball middle he took it deep, and I tried to throw a strike with a backdoor slider and he hit that one, it was middle (of the plate). I just started kind of aiming the ball, because they got the five-run lead pretty early.”
On the mounting home-run total against him
“It doesn’t bother me as long as long as I make pretty good pitches all game long and guys aren’t on base. I’d rather go after guys than give up walks and pitch around them. I’d rather just go after them and make them earn it. But tonight it was one of those things where guys were on (base). They’d kind of inside-out some balls and got on base, and then Tommy was locked in.”
Could you tell early that it was going to be a struggle?
“Yeah, I felt like it was going to be a battle, just because I felt like I was making decent pitches, I felt good, and they were still putting the bat on the ball, on the barrel. The game plan we had last week, I guess they caught on to us and they kind of reacted to it.”
Do you understand if the Braves consider whether or not to keep running you out there or perhaps make a change?
“Yeah, for sure. It’s a business, I understand that. And we’re in a pennant race. It’s winding down, last third of the season. Can’t be giving away games with me going out there and pitching like that.”
In your opinion what solution would work best?
“I don’t know the answer. If I knew I’d go back out there and pitch better.”
What happened on Medica’s stolen base when you didn’t see him going?
“I didn’t hear anything. I guess I looked down and he took third. When I looked up he was already sliding into third. I usually assume that time has been called on something like that, when a play is done. So I don’t usually pay attention right away, until I step on the rubber and I look at him and he’s taking his lead or whatever.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
Does it feel embarrassing to lose like this?
“No. It’s one of those games. Everything they hit found a hole. We never seemed to be close to it. We’d play a little shift, play the hole, they’d hit a ball down the line. We play the line, they hit a ball in the hole. Tommy (La Stella) is playing a shift (up the middle) on Tommy Medica and he hits two grounders to the right side. Will Venable was looping balls in in front of our outfielders. It was just one of those things. And we just didn’t come out and hit the ball today. We were able to hit him last week, we just didn’t hit him this week.”
On why so much struggles offensively tonight
“I can’t answer that question, I’m baffled myself.”
Possible hangover effect after getting geared up to face two aces previous 2 nights in Greinke and Kershaw?
“I don’t know. He threw pitches to hit tonight and we just didn’t hit them. I was getting pitches right down the middle and I’m rolling them over. I can’t explain it. It’s just, we need to come out here and swing the bats better against Kennedy tomorrow.”
**DAVID HALE
On his gesture to the dugout when trainer Jeff Porter was coming out to check on him (Hale made a dismissive motion with his hand to tell Porter to stay in the dugout)
“My emotions were running high. I pride myself on treating people the right way and being appreciative of what they do for me. I’m more disappointed with the way I acted toward Mr. Porter, Jeff Porter. That was completely the wrong thing to do. But we talked to each other, and we love each other. That’s all behind us. I apologized to him.”
Did getting up to warm up since early innings, and giving up hits in blowout, all play a part in it?
“Yeah, I mean, when you’re getting hit around like that your emotions start going pretty crazy. I wasn’t able to take it out on the hitters and get them out, and I took it out on a sitting duck, the guy that’s out there trying to do the best for me. That’s poor. That’s being a poor human being on my part. But he knows it was just emotions and I apologized to him.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On the all-around lousy performance
“The game’s over, and the good thing about our game (baseball) is you get to crank it up again tomorrow. And it’s a clean slate, and go get ‘em. We didn’t swing the bats – what did we have, three hits, four hits? And then we didn’t pitch well.”
On Minor giving up more homers, is that’s what most troubling, or things in general with him?
“A lot of things in general. He didn’t get to his breaking ball, he didn’t get to his curveball until late. Roger went out there and told him you’ve got to go to your curveball. He was just throwing fastball, cutters, changeups, and they were all coming back to the middle of the plate. After the adjustment, getting the curveball down, he did OK. So there’s something to be said about that.”
On Hale’s gesture toward dugout when trainer Jeff Porter was coming out to check on him; that bother you?
“Yeah. Jeff and I, mostly Jeff, he was going to go out there and check on him. Yeah, that bothered me. I know it’s competitive, frustration, getting hurt, anger, whatever word you want to use. But that’s not the right actions. Especially towards a guy who wants to help him. And when guys get hurt, they’re the first guys they call. I’m sure Jeff and David talked, and so, it’s over with. I apologize that it got on television. But what are you going to do? It is what it is, and we’ll just go forward.”
You’ve been patient with Minor, have you reached point where you have to at least consider whether to send him back out for next start?
“The game ended 15 minutes ago. There’s a lot of stuff that we need to sit down and sort through, talk about. We’ve got a couple of days off coming up, Monday and Thursday off next week. But no, I haven’t … I have other stuff on my mind right now.”
On Stoltz, came in 1-10 with five-plus ERA in past 13 starts. Why so successful tonight?
“He mixed his pitches well and he kept his off-balance a little bit. And it was not our night.”
Will you say something to your team after a game like this?
“A couple of things that went on, I think everybody is upset with the way we played. I think tomorrow I’ll circle around and talk to some of the guys that we need to talk to. It’s hard to get on the team after the series we played against the Dodgers. We lost three games (to the Dodgers), let’s not forget that, but it was some good, hard baseball. The intensity was there. For you to come in after a game like this tonight that wasn’t well played, and yell and scream, I don’t think it was the right time. We’ll circle around tomorrow and have some conversations with some guys.”
What happened on Medica’s stolen base at third when Minor didn’t see him go?
“We got caught not paying attention. We had a couple of infielders who had their backs turned to the runner, and he took advantage of it.”
