PHILADELPHIA — Braves quotes from Freddie Freeman, Williams Perez and Fredi Gonzalez after Friday’s 9-3 loss at Philly.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Perez’s rough night
“The first inning, right off the get-go, his sinker wasn’t sinking, it was moving laterally. And they took advantage of it — early in counts, too. The middle innings, he did a nice job, he started getting his secondary pitches over for strikes and his sinker was sinking. And then there at the end, some balls just went through the holes and they got a big number there.”
Do you chalk that up to some rust from a month on DL?
“I think so. It’s the first time he’s pitched in the big leagues in over a month. Maybe a little amped up and that sort of thing. We’ll move forward and let him take his turn, do all his sidework and that kind of stuff here with us, and get him on to his next start.”
Marksberry gave up a couple of hits after replacing Perez with runners on, then seemed to settle in
“We always want to give those guys a first-time appearance in the big leagues a clean inning, give them a chance to work around some mistakes. It never works that way. We got him in a (runners at) first-and-third situation. But he threw the ball over the plate, which is a good sign. That’s always a good sign when you bring in a young pitcher who started in A-ball, this year, and here it is July or August and he’s pitching in the big leagues. He threw the ball over the plate, and I was impressed by that.
“It’s nice to see Freeman get his 100th (homer), I think he’s one of the youngest guys in baseball to do that. It’s nice to see him do that and get his timing going. You’re starting to see swings getting there, little by little. Hopefully those swings will keep coming.”
On keeping team morale up after a game like this
“It always starts with the guy on the hill. Momentum is the next day’s starter. We’ve got Wis (Wisler) going tomorrow. When you go down four runs at the beginning of the game, it’s tough. You saw guys battling. You saw Maybin beat out a potential double-play ground ball. So you’re looking for those signs. You see guys busting their butts, taking the extra base, not giving at-bats away. What did we get today, 11 hits (10)? So those are the signs you look for as a manager and a coach, which is, what are these guys giving? And they’re giving good at-bats, they’re giving you good effort, it’s just right now we’re not scoring runs.”
**WILLIAMS PEREZ
Did you feel rusty from the month on the DL?
“I felt rusty. I felt like I hadn’t pitched up here in a month. I tried to battle through it. I was able to make adjustments from the second inning on, but that last inning, things fell apart for me.”
Fredi said your sinker wasn’t sinking in the first inning, that it was moving laterally
“It wasn’t sinking as much as it normally does.”
On comparing three good rehab starts to tonight
“There’s a big difference between Triple-A and the big leagues. They’re not swinging at the pitches that they were swinging at down there. They’re a lot more selective up here than down there.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On the 9-3 loss
“There’s no beating around the bush, that was not a pretty game played by the Atlanta Braves tonight. But that’s the beauty of baseball, we know we get to come back here tomorrow and hopefully put today in the past and start playing better baseball and get on the winning side.”
On last-place Phillies’ resurgence since break
“I think they’re, like, the best team since the All-Star break. They’re pitching well and they’re hitting well. Scoring seven, eight, nine runs a game, they’re pretty much going to win every game. Wisler’s pitching tomorrow, so hopefully he cane come in and shut them down and we’ll score more runs than we have lately.”
Did you see some rust from Perez after his month on the DL?
“He walked a guy and kind of left a couple of pitches out over (the plate). And it’s Ryne Howard and Domonic Brown. Domonic Brown was an All-Star a couple of years ago, and it looks like he’s starting to get hot. And making a mistake to Ryan Howard, he’s going to make you pay for it. I thought he (Perez) pitched pretty good after the first inning, until he got to the fifth and just a couple more pitches that were up.
“It was nice to see Marksberry get in and get his first game. Little rough first couple of batters, then he settled down. So it was nice for him to get that one out of the way.”
On hitting a homer to the opposite field after struggling lately
“Yeah, it’s been an absolute grind since I came back (from the DL). Still grinding out there. Obviously it was nice to hit a ball to left field hard. Hopefully I can build off of that and carry it into tomorrow and hopefully a nice two-month run.”
On getting double-digit hits in some recent games but still not many runs
“We had 12 hits last night and 10 tonight. I think if you keep doing that, sooner or later we’ll start getting some of those hits with runners in scoring position. I think that’s the thing the last few games. Obviously we had bases loaded yesterday and no outs and only scored one run. We’ve had opportunities, I’ve had opportunities, so I need to start coming through, we need to start coming through, and hopefuly the floodgates will open for us.”
