NEW YORK — Braves quotes from Fredi Gonzalez, Mike Minor, Andrelton Simmons, Chris Johnson and two umpires followed Monday's 11-inning loss to the Mets.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On rough loss
“We had the lead, 3-2. And it was a 1-2 count to begin (what became) a 3-2 count, and we got a ball over the middle of the plate, and he’s dangerous. He hit the ball out of the ballpark to tie the game there.”
On Avilan shaking off Bethancourt
“I don’t… I wasn’t paying attention. I know he got from a 1-2 count to a 3-2 count, and he doesn’t want to walk him in that situation. And he just threw too much of a hittable pitch there.”
On Minor after giving up the homer
“That was an unbelievable job. He had a chance to sneak a win there, after one of, probably the best outings we’ve seen him in a long time. He gives up the solo home run to Wright and another run, but he battled, kept us in the ballgame, we come back and score three. It’s just a shame that he doesn’t get a W. Nevertheless he had a great outing.”
On Heyward’s hit and staying in there after getting buzzed near head
“I don’t think the ball was on purpose or anything, especially when you’ve got a man on third base. But that was a good at-bat. Hopefully that will get him going a little bit.”
On the overturned call at second base, what was the umps’ ruling?
“It’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen. Luckily it didn’t cost us the game there. But whoever interpreted it in the headquarters for video replay … it may be one of the worst calls. They called that the (throw) pulled him off the bag. And I want to know – that couldn’t have been a better throw.
“You know what, they got away with it (because) we didn’t lose the game there. But it’s a bad interpretation. Whoever interpreted it…. That becomes a neighborhood play. Nevertheless, I think they got lucky that we didn’t lose the game there, because that may be the worst I’ve seen in a long time. Because nobody can tell me that that throw pulled (Simmons) off the bag. I don’t care how many replay angles they’ve got better than I do in here. It’s just a bad call.”
After umps appeared to tell Terry Collins initially that it was a neighborhood play and couldn’t be reviewed, what changed their minds?
“I don’t know. They got together and went to the headsets to (call) back to the headquarters here (in New York) and somebody there told them that he got pulled off. If he got pulled off, I want to know where. I’ve never seen a better throw, No. 1. And No. 2, they gave the error to Simmons. If the ball pulled him off, they would have given the error to Chris Johnson. So even the scorer got it right without any replays or anything like that.
“Again, it’s a fine line. We want to protect the guys, the replays at second base, there’s no challenge on the neighborhood plays. That is a neighborhood play. And they got it wrong. Again, they got lucky that we didn’t lose the game there, that we got out of that inning.”
“The guys (umpires) here, it’s out of their hands. It goes to the crew in the major league baseball office. I would like somebody to be please tell me how that throw pulled him off. But again, we didn’t lose the game there, which I think it would have been egg on somebody’s face if we lose the ballgame that inning because of that call.”
**MIKE MINOR
On his performance, Fredi saying it was one of his best in a long time
“Yeah, I felt good. I felt good about it just because I was getting weaker contact. I didn’t even know I was at 107, 108 pitches. I felt like I was cruising because I had a couple of quick outs. But there were a couple of 3-2 counts early on in the game.”
On difference after the Wright home run, settled in after that
“I don’t even think it was that. I think it was just a bad pitch and he hit a home run. He’s a good player. But I was helping myself, getting ground balls and letting the outfielders get some work out there. They were hitting a lot of balls off the end of the bat and going right to our outfielders.”
So, progress made?
“For sure. I had some key bulletin points that I wanted to do – keep the ball down, pitch more into the lefties, and that’s the way we did. We got a lot of ground balls to Freddie with just the first two guys.”
One you can build off of, one of your better ones, like the Nationals start a couple of weeks back?
“Yeah, I’ve just got to string them together, though. Be more consistent. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, just hasn’t been happening obviously.”
**ANDRELTON SIMMONS
“I ain’t got nothing good to say about it, so I’d rather not say anything.”
**CHRISTIAN BETHANCOURT
On Avilan giving up tying homer
“I thought it was going to be the right pitch; he thought it was going to be the right pitch, but right down the middle we can’t do anything. He took a good swing, got the home run, you’ve got to give him credit.”
So if executes the pitch, even though he wanted it inside, it’s fine?
“Yeah, because that’s Avilan’s pitch. Sinker, that’s his pitch. He gave up the home run with that pitch, I mean, he fell on his best pitch. We’re good with that.”
On the eighth-inning rally
“That’s what we work for, those innings like that. That’s good when you’re behind, got three batters up, three base hits, we’re back in the game.”
On Mets walking La Stella with runners at second to get to Bethancourt
“I mean, you know they’re going to walk him there, with a base open and a righty (Bethancourt) coming up, righty against righty. That’s what he wanted to do. But it kind of motivated me, made me want it more, because they’re walking the guy to face me. I really wanted it for my team. I was just trying to do my job, trying to select a good pitch and try to get the base hit.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On the umps’ overturning call at second
“I only saw the replay on the field. I just kind of wash it away and file it as a non-issue” (because they didn’t score)
“They just kept battling. They didn’t have a ton of hits but they had some big hits. We had a lot of hits but we left a couple of guys out there. Could have been the difference. It was a hard-fought game. Our bullpen did a great job I thought. Simmons did a real good job. Minor obviously did well. We’ll come back tomorrow.”
**1B ump (and crew chief) MIKE EVERITT: "We reviewed the call because, in our judgment, we felt the throw took the fielder off the bag. We judged that the throw took him off the bag."
“We determined that the throw took him off, and that was going to be reviewable.”
**3B ump TIM TIMMONS: "He's trying to complete the double play quicker. He's trying to gain an advantage."
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