Braves quotes from manager Fredi Gonzalez, Freddie Freeman and Alex Wood after Friday’s loss to the Padres.
FREDI GONZALEZ
On game
“I’ve never seen so many ground balls go through the infield. (Wood) kept getting ground balls and they just kept getting through the infield. Really. That’s the bottom line. He gave up (12) hits and seven or eight of them were on the ground. He just couldn’t get a hit at anybody. That was it. That was the game. Five runs in five innings. The bullpen did a nice job keeping us right there. They had to bring in their closer (Joaquin Benoit) in the eighth inning to get a save. That’s always a plus for us. You make him throw extra pitches and extra hitters and down the road, we play them three more games, maybe he won’t be available. The story was Woody couldn’t get a ground ball at somebody.”
On eighth inning rally with Evan Gattis and Chris Johnson up with bases loaded
“That’s it. I thought Gattis had a terrific at-bat to draw a walk and bring CJ up to the plate. You always feel pretty good with him at the plate to get a good at-bat and split a gap. It just didn’t happen today.”
On whether Gattis is all the way back
“Yes. I’ve seen some at-bats. It’s been a long two, three weeks off. It takes a while. It’s encouraging to get used to major-league pitching. I think that at-bat with the bases loaded with Benoit was the one I think will get him over the hump for tomorrow. You got the bases juiced, the adrenalin going. He settled down and saw the ball really well against a tough closer and drew a walk.
On only having four hits
“The young kid (Jesse Hahn) he had almost two breaking balls. I haven’t seen a curveball, almost a true curveball like that, in a long time. Listening to some of the guys talk, it’s sometimes hard to adjust to 72, 73 miles an hour curveball. Then he had another that was a little faster. Miles per hour he didn’t light you up. I think he was 92, 93 miles per hour fastball. He really changed speeds and he really changed eye level with our guys. I think that was a big key for his success.
How concerned are you with offense?
“We always want to score more runs and get more hits. We can go through some stuff like this as a team and all of a sudden turn the corner and nobody can get us out. It was nice to have (Freddie) Freeman get a couple hits tonight, staying in the middle of the diamond. That’s nice. Justin (Upton) picking up the sac fly. We’ll get it cranked up again.”
On being 2-1/2 games behind Nationals
“We’ve still got 70 games left and two or three series left with (the Nationals). We’ve just got to bear down and try to win the series against the Padres.”
FREDDIE FREEMAN
On Padres ground balls getting through for hits
“It’s just one of those things. Woody was pitching good and getting ground balls and they were just finding holes tonight.”
On Hahn
“I can’t even tell you. I swung early in the count. I got two-seamers and curveballs. I only saw (a few pitches). I was up there swinging.”
On turning around series
“We’ve got to score runs. Fredi said it yesterday. We have to keep the line moving. We are not doing that right now. That’s one of the things we’ve got to do, get those big hits so everybody relaxes and calms down and everybody goes up and has fun.”
On eighth-inning rally
“We made some great at-bats right there. It’s something we can take into tomorrow. We had the right guys up there. Chris just barely missed that one.”
ALEX WOOD
On ground balls for hits
“I think it was a combination of things. Obviously, there were a lot of ground balls that go through. On another day, maybe they are right at guys. At the same time, I thought it was a combination of that and I don’t think I adjusted quick enough and changed my game plan that we had going in. I think that was part of it too, part of the reason some of those ground balls got through. It was a combination of both.”
On what to do differently
“I didn’t go in enough early on. I probably could have thrown a few more breaking balls. They did a good job. I’ve got to tip my cap. They didn’t try to do too much. They just took their hits. They didn’t try to hit the ball out of the ball park. They just took their singles and it paid off for them.”
On whether he hit locations he wanted
“I felt pretty good. I felt maybe a couple of my changeups got side to side instead of having the usual depth. I thought I threw some quality pitches. I’m sure there were a couple of those balls I left over the plate. At the same time, it was probably a combination of things – not executing the game plan and not adjusting quick enough. Also, you have balls that can’t seem to find anybody. They just get through.”
