Braves quotes from Nick Markakis, Matt Wisler and Fredi Gonzalez after Monday’s 7-5 win against the Dodgers.
**MATT WISLER
On the win
“It was a good team win. The offense definitely picked us up today, picked me up. The bullpen came in and closed it. They gave us early lead, and I gave up the lead in the fifth. They picked me right back up in the bottom of the fifth, scored some runs, so that was huge.”
Did you lobby to stay in during the fifth?
“Yeah, obviously you don’t want to come out of the game. I didn’t have that many pitches tonight through five innings. That’s definitely a learning situation for me. I’ve got to learn to get out of that with no runs instead of the four runs I gave up. So, definitely a learning game, but it’s great to be able to work through that and be able to go out in the sixth inning and get a zero up.”
Fredi Gonzalez said he thought your breaking ball looked as good as it’s looked in the sixth
“Yeah, we made a minor adjustment. I think I was just over-rotating a little bit on some stuff early in the game. They told me about it in the dugout, and I cleaned it up in that sixth inning and everything kind of came back into place.”
On the home-run pitch to Adrian Gonzalez
“In my mind, after the Howie Kendrick double – I thought I made a pretty good pitch on that, he just kind of hit it how it was pitched – with (Gonzalez) I went away, ball 1, and in my mind I was thinking try to go up and in on his hands. But I just left it over the middle.”
How far do you think you’ve come in a month, to handle a good-hitting team like that for five of six innings
“I feel good. I feel confident when I’m on the mound. Obviously I didn’t have that great a stuff in the first couple of innings tonight, so to work through that lineup with nothing through the first four was good. Obviously I’m going to have to take my lumps and learn from that in the fifth inning, learn how to, with two outs, make that pitch to get out of the inning. But overall I felt good. I feel good on the mound, I feel like I belong here, confident every time I pitch.”
**NICK MARKAKIS
Nice to have the first homer be an important one like that in the first inning, give Wisler some run support early?
“Yeah. We won the ballgame, that’s the main thing. I’m just out there trying to get on base, get hits any way they come, whether it’s single, double, triple, home run. I don’t care. I’m just trying to get my hits and help win the ballgame.”
Has it been difficult to try to stay patient, knowing it was going to be a process coming back from December neck surgery?
“At times it is. But that’s where you’ve got to be strong mentally. I’ve always said this game is 70 percent mental, 30 percent ability. If you have ability, you can make it to the big leagues. That 70 percent, I think, is the toughest part. It’s a long season, a grind. You’ve got to have a good head on your shoulders.”
On scoring three more runs after they came back to tie 4-4
“We had a lot of great at-bats. Got some guys on base. Jace has been unbelievable with the bases loaded this year. I wish he could hit every time with the bases loaded. We just had some timely hitting with guys on base, and things worked out. Bullpen did a good job.”
Nice to see Wisler come back from four-run fifth to get a 1-2-3 sixth inning?
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s good to see a young pitcher like that battle. He needs to be in those situations because he’s going to be in a lot more of them throughout his career. He’s got a good head on his shoulders, he’s got great stuff, and he’s fun to play behind.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On another strong effort from Matt Wisler
“I’m glad we ran him back out there in the sixth. That was probably his best inning. That was a nice development inning for him. He gives up four in the fifth inning to tie the game and then we get a run and he goes back out there and gives us a clean inning. He might have had his best breaking ball in the sixth inning. He didn’t have his secondary pitches in the first four, five innings. He had nothing. He was just throwing fastballs against some professional hitters on the other side there, but he did a nice job.”
On why he left Wisler in the game in the fifth
“Sometimes you’ve got to show them you’ve got confidence in them and you’ve got to let them grow a little bit. And also the last three games out starters have been going 4 1/3, five innings, and we needed some length. And we wanted him to go out there for the sixth and he did and he gave us an extra inning.”
On impact of Arodys Vizcaino and Eury Perez in the eighth inning
“Big. I think the play of the game was Perez throwing (Adrian) Gonzalez out at the plate. It was. And also, in the seventh when he made the play up against the wall. Those were two good plays by him defensively.”
On Jace Peterson continuing to produce with the bases loaded amid slump
“There’s something to be said about that. He’s a tough kid that doesn’t get rattled much. In those situations you’ve got to keep your poise and it seems like he does that really well.”
On big nights at the plate for Peterson and Andrelton Simmons
“Yes, they both needed some good production. I tell you what. I go back to the game that we won against the Cubs when (Simmons) had a great at-bat to draw a base-on-ball. I started to see yesterday he got a couple hits, if I’m not mistaken. He got a couple hits today. I think you’re starting to see the approach that we talked about the first couple months of the season. So hopefully we’ve got him going in the right direction.”
On seeing Nick Markakis hit his first home run this season
“He picked probably the toughest park to hit a home run to straightaway center. That shows you. But I don’t care if he has one home run, no home runs or 30 home runs. He gives you great at-bats and he always comes big and he gets on base and makes people work. He’s a good pure hitter for us.”
On if it’s good to see positive response from team after Dodgers tied the game
“We kept the line moving. I think they got 11 hits and we got 11 ourselves. I thought (Jim Johnson) did a nice job in the ninth inning. They got some ground balls. He’s a sinker-ball pitcher and sometimes the ground balls are going to find the holes, and that’s what happened there in the ninth inning. And one, we turned a double-play and the last one was a grounder to first and we’ve got a chance to win the game.”
On if there was any hesitation to put Andrew McKirahan in in the eighth inning
“We’ve got to find out, right? I had both Vizcaino and McKirahan – both were up. And we got lefty, right, lefty, and I’m thinking, ‘OK, so easy to run Vizcaino right here.’ … I turned and I told (pitching coach) Roger (McDowell), ‘Let’s just get McKirahan, but have Vizcaino ready for either a pitch-hit possibility or (Yasiel) Puig.’ But we’ve got to find out what we’ve got.”
