Braves quotes from Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, Julio Teheran, Evan Gattis and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Monday’s 13-inning loss to the Phillies.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On wasting scoring opportunities
“Yeah we had some opportunities. We had some opportunities, bases loaded there early in the game in the seventh inning, and first and third there in the 10th, and we didn’t score. You start getting deep into the bullpen and you start putting guys in situations that they can hurt themselves or risk injuries and it’s not good. But we had some opportunities with the right people, I felt, at the plate. It didn’t happen.”
Does it get annoying or frustrating after missing so many major scoring opportunities lately in these close games?
“No. You know what it’s, I never get frustrated with our club because they bust their tail and I think we need to get on a roll where we get those runs in, maybe get the ball up in the air a little bit. And we just didn’t do that. But not frustrated because I know how much these guys work, and we’ve played three or four days in a row now (where) we haven’t been home until 1 o’clock in the morning at the earliest. So go get them tomorrow.
“We had a great outing, (given) everything (that happened) in this game you lose what a great outing Teheran had. So much that I thought about letting him start the ninth, let him hit for himself in the ninth inning. But we were one run down at that point. He had a great outing.”
On Carpenter, how bad is the biceps-injury situation?
“We’re going to evaluate him and we’ll make a decision in the morning. I don’t know, if there’s nothing major, maybe it’s just a situation where not just him but a bunch of them have gone three in a row and four out of five, six out of eight days and hopefully we can dodge a bullet and maybe we can lay off him a couple days but we’ll know more in the morning.”
What do you say to Hale after another 5-run 13th inning?
“Hang in there. Here’s another guy that, I think he’s pitched more than he’s pitched ever, in a situation a young kid who’s probably never been put through this stuff, where he’s pitched multiple innings, a day off, and try to crank it up again. Hopefully we keep having good outings by our starters and we could lay off a couple of those guys for two or three days in a row.”
Why have La Stella swing away, instead of bunt (in the ninth)?
“My bullpen. I didn’t want to tie the game. I was going to try to take a shot and try to win the game in that situation because really the only guy we could have used there was Walden and that would have been three days in a row for him. That’s the only reason for (not bunting). You make decisions offensively sometimes based on how well or not so well your bullpen is.”
On whether he thinks Braves might need a fresh arm in next couple of days for bullpen
“We’ll know. Obviously if Carpenter’s not (good) we’ll bring somebody up but right now we haven’t made any of those decisions.”
**JASON HEYWARD
Had some wasted chances tonight and in Saturday’s 13-inning loss; did games feel similar?
“Yeah. Feel similar. Not always going to happen. Not always going to get it done, not always going to get a hit, not always going to get a sac fly. That’s part of the game. Toughest thing is that we fought, we fought, we fought. Hung in there. And they were able to get it done and we weren’t.”
On offense scoring 3 runs in an inning, 5 in another, but no consistency
“We haven’t played (the Phillies) since April or May, so it’s been a while. (Carlos Ruiz) usually calls a good game back there behind the plate, regardless. Takes some time to adjust to that, he does a good job of keeping guys off-balance. Cole obviously threw well. So hats off to them. But again, we fought back. It’s just one of those things where I like our odds tomorrow, the more times we see them. I like our odds the next time in Philly better than I liked them tonight. Not saying we can’t get it done first time through, but you have to adjust.”
On couple of long nights?
“Couple? Colorado was long. Arizona was long. We’ve just been battling, playing some teams in their ballparks where they play well. We’ve been fighting. We haven’t been rolling over, I don’t feel like. That’s part of it. But that’s what’s fun about the game, you have the opportunity to go play tomorrow and try and win a series still. Again, playing good baseball, playing good enough to be in first place right now in a very tight division. And you know what, it’s not over? The toughest thing is we played a long game tonight, we fought and came up short.”
**EVAN GATTIS
On these long games, losses
“Hard-fought games. Julio pitched unbelievable; he didn’t deserve a loss. He got a no-decision, so we got ride of that (L), but, you know, it just wasn’t enough. However you want to say it. We didn’t hit early, and Hamels threw well.”
On Teheran
“He looked great. He looked great in the pen, he looked great out there (on the mound). He was commanding the off-speed to both sides of the plate, commanding both fastballs, two-seam and four-seam. Unbelievable performance for Julio.”
On Hamels
“The best pitch I got to hit I think was the one I popped up, first pitch of the game that I saw. He was kind of nasty after that.”
On the strikeout against Diekman, how close was that called third strike?
“Down, too close to take. I didn’t take it because I thought it was a ball, I took it because it kind of froze me. 98 (mph).”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On the loss
“We had a lot of opportunities. If you can take a positive out of this, we did have a lot of opportunities. We had a lot of hits. Our offense has been swinging the bats very well lately, we just didn’t get the key hit tonight.”
What about Hamels, how was he pitching?
“He didn’t make any mistakes, really. To us lefties he had the changeup — left-on-left changeups you don’t see very often — and also he had the front-door cutter. He was mixing and matching and he was able to keep us off balance tonight. He’s been really good the last three starts also, so he just kept it rolling into us.”
Did he look like the Hamels of old
“He did. Obviously he doesn’t have the 93 to 95 anymore, so he’s learning how to pitch with that cutter and he’s doing a really good job.”
You had the single, double, triple, staring to feel a little better?
“Yeah, I felt good probably about a week ago, I just wasn’t getting any results. I think four or five games ago I worked the count to 3-2, I definitely started seeing the ball a lot better. You know, I feel better, everything is going up to the middle and I’m able to get some hits to the left side now, so I think we’re getting back on track.”
When they scored those five runs in the 13th, were you thinking about you guys’ missed opportunities earlier?
“You’re always going to think about what could have been when you lose a game. If I had caught the groundball we could have got the double play right there. But it’s just one of those things were you know you’ve got to play perfect baseball when you don’t score a lot of runs.”
On how hard that grounder was hit to him
“It was, it bent my glove back. One of those things where I hope I just knock it down next time instead of having it whip my glove backwards.”
**JULIO TEHERAN
On being happy to rebound after last outing at Colorado
“I think that I threw a good game, and I won’t call it a mistake (pitch to Howard) because it wasn’t. That was a good pitch. That was a pitch that I wanted to throw, and he got a homer off me. I think that was a good pitch but it wasn’t the perfect location to throw it. That’s it. I know that’s going to happen. Just try to hold the other team and give my team a chance to score some runs.”
That were you wanted the pitch?
“It was the perfect pitch, a two-seamer, I just think that he was waiting for that. And when you throw what they’re waiting for it’s going to be a hit.”
On if he gets confidence back coming off frustrating start vs. Colorado
“I forgot about that one and just concentrated on this one.”
