Braves quotes after their 7-3 loss to the Marlins on Wednesday at Turner Field.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On if this is when he finds out who his leaders are
“It’s a tough day. Tough home stand, tough road trip before we got here. I’m looking to see, and so far I see guys that are in their leadership roles still have got their heads up and are still grinding. We are in some kind of perfect storm right now of not scoring many runs and allowing the other team to score a lot. It’s a tough combination.”
On Williams Perez not putting batters away with two strikes
“You are dead on. The two-run homer to (Marcell) Ozuna was an 0-2 breaking ball right over the plate. He’s a young guy. I thought his first three or four innings he pitched pretty darn good and then he made the mistake and they run him out of the ballpark and just kept adding on.”
On playing with so many young and players
“We knew going into this that could be a chance. The first two months of the year we had a fun group of guys. We knew this could happen. We just go out there every day and we work at it. We put guys in there at a position we think they can be successful. We watch to see what’s going on for next year. We’ve got guys that might not have gotten this opportunity. Now they are getting opportunities and we’ve got to figure out where they fit. They will tell us, but you keep running them out there. We’ve got to play the schedule out. We’ve got some important games, important series to play out. I keep telling myself when I come in we could run some people’s plans. That’s the way we go about our business.”
On if he’s seen improvement from catcher Christian Bethancourt behind the plate
“At times I see it on the video. I guess it’s tough at times, too, to catch guys he hasn’t caught a lot.”
**CAMERON MAYBIN
On the losing streak
“We are just going out there and trying to compete the best we can. Trying to stay together as a group. That’s all you can really do right now, man, is try to find some positives in a tough stretch we are in right now.”
On what are the positives
“Chemistry is still here. Guys are still picking each other up. Guys are still being good teammates. Those are things that matter when it’s easy to go into individual mode. You see guys still patting each other on the back, picking each other up, encouraging each other to keep going. Just not give anything away. Whatever happens is going to happen but we just can’t give it away. It has to be earned. We can’t just go roll over and go through the motions. You still see guys picking each other up and coming in there upbeat. That’s definitely a positive for sure.”
**HECTOR OLIVERA
On getting his first hit
“I felt really good. I finally broke the ice. I’m looking forward to continuing to play every day and getting a little more experience and confidence.”
On if he felt pressure
“No, not really. I just go out there with a plan and an approach and tries to take every at-bat as one at-bat at a time and whatever comes with it, comes with it.”
On his approach at the plate
“I just go in there looking for my pitch, something I can drive. I don’t really go in there looking for any certain pitch, I just want something I can put a good swing on.”
