ST. LOUIS—Braves quotes after 4-2 loss to Cardinals on Friday at Busch Stadium
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Manny Banuelos
“Today was a young pitcher, all the signs. Three out of the four runs were after two quick outs. That’s a young pitcher pitching in the big leagues. You get two quick outs, kind of relax a little bit, and next thing you know the inning kind of evolves on him. Other than that I thought he did a pretty good job. I thought our bullpen did a terrific job after we get two runs, keeping it right there and giving us a chance. In the ninth inning we’ve got Jonny Gomes at the plate who historically wears out left-hander pitching, you feel pretty good that situation. (Kevin) Siegrist made some nice pitches.”
On the two-out walks being costly against a team like Cardinals
“These guys leading in a lot of offensive categories. You’ve got to get two quick outs and you’ve got to put the third our away. It’s a young pitcher learning his way in the major leagues.”
On Cardinals starter Tim Cooney
“He had four pitches going for strikes with command. You look at the video on our guy and there were a couple times he missed the target by a good width of the plate. You do that and you leave balls over the plate or they get put where they shouldn’t be out and they are going to get hit.”
On the trade of Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe
“It’s tough because hour, hour and 10 minutes before the game starts you get pulled off the field and say Hey, this is going to happen’ and you’ve got to make some lineup changes. You are getting ready to lose two guys that are really good guys on our club. They are both loved. Uribe has been here only two months but he fit right away with these guys. You are going to miss that and both of those guys’ productivity. You wish them well and sure see them at least two more times.
On Johnson and Uribe being respected in the clubhouse
“They are both respected guys around the league, too. But you know this is what we signed up for. This is a cruel game and there is a possibility for us to make trades to get better for the near future. This is two guys we are going to lose and we will get two (more) guys and hopefully those guys will come in and help us win some ballgames.”
KELLY JOHNSON
On when he found out about trade
“Sometime right around BP. This is my fourth time being traded so I don’t’ have that feeling of whoa what just happened. More shock I guess in being traded to the team in our division and this early, too. You know the deadline is coming and the date can be any time.”
On if he didn’t see it coming
“Only in terms of it being this early and to the Mets. Just because it’s a team in the division and we aren’t trailing them by too much. But that’s how it goes.”
On if it makes it tougher because he was comfortable with the Braves
“It does. You find something that is comfortable and a good routine when it’s working it’s hard to think about getting out of that. The toughest thing will be finding that routine there. I’m familiar with one of their hitting coaches, Kevin Long, so there is some familiarity and obviously I’m in the division I’m in now and going to see a lot of the same teams. But it’s tough. This is a really good group of guys in this clubhouse. I’ve known all of the coaches forever, clubhouse guys, everything. It’s like the first time I left Atlanta, it kind of feels like that.”
JUAN URIBE (via Spanish interpretation by Eddie Perez)
On his reaction to trade
“I was very surprised today but I know I had no control of it. I knew it was going to happen but I wasn’t expecting today.”
On if it’s harder to leave because he fit in so quickly
“When I get traded I try to be as a family all the time in any clubhouse I’ve been and that’s what I tried to do here. I was trying to be the best for the guys and that’s what I’m going to try to do in the next place.”
On if he was surprised to be traded to a division rival
“I feel very good because I got traded to a team that is a contender. I would feel bad if I got released. I know I’m going to go to a good team and have a chance to go to the playoffs.”
A.J. PIERZYNSKI
On Manny Banuelos
“He didn’t pitch that bad. He made some mistakes, the two-out walk to (Yadier Molina), then the home run. Two-out hit by (Jhonny) Peralta, (Mark) Reynolds hit a pretty good pitch to drive in the other run. It wasn’t a bad night. I hope he learns from it and continues to pitch better. He threw the ball fine, he kept us in it. There was a chance there it could have got out of hand. He made some pitches and the bullpen came in and did a good job.”
On Cooney
“He was mixing it up. Keeping the ball down, got some ground balls, keeping us off balance. He was tough. He threw some good pitches and not much we could do. We had a chance in the ninth but unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
On if it was emotional day with the trade
“Yeah, it sucks. Kelly and Juan are both good guys, great teammates. You never want to see those guys go. It’s a business and you understand that but at the same time we probably had a chance to get Freddie back and see what happens but losing those guys is going to hurt for a long time.”
On what to do going forward
“You just play. That’s all we’ve done all year. We haven’t worried about who is here and who isn’t here. All you can do is play. If you are here, you are here; if you are not, you are not. The 25 guys we have here, that’s who we are going to fight with. We’ve done it all year and we’ve done it right. We’ll continue to do that.”
On if he was glad to reunite with Uribe
“I love Uribe. Him and I go back long, long time. He’s one of my favorite people. It was fun having him around and having his energy and hearing his voice. I wish him nothing but the best.”
