PHOENIX — Braves quotes from Craig Kimbrel, Jason Heyward, Ervin Santana and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday night's 11-inning loss at Arizona.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On blown leads in last innings
“It’s hard to close out games, especially in the major leagues with a one-run (lead).”
On Carpenter’s ongoing struggles, compounded by some bad luck on bloop hit tonight
“That’s the way it goes. Hitters go through it a little bit, and pitchers will go through the same thing. And he’s going through the same things. We’ll just keep running him out there in situations where he’s going to be successful, and maybe we’ll get it turned around.”
You see anything different from him, in the stuff, the location, movement, anything?
“Not really. I haven’t seen that. You can’t defend a bloop single, and he hit it perfectly. But you know what, we’ll keep working with him. Roger will keep working with him. We know how good he can be. I mean, he was so good last year that he was primarily our eighth-inning guy. Now… everybody goes through a little something.”
On Santana
“I thought Santana was outstanding. We got him in a little trouble with our mishandling the baseball, but he got himself out of it.”
Seemed like he had trouble getting in sync early with Gattis, then they worked it out
“They did. They came back in, I think it was the bottom of the second, and they got it figured out. They settled in.”
On Kimbrel blowing save
“You know what? He’s human. It’s tough to convert one-run saves, and he’s human. I told him that in the dugout. Be ready to go back out there tomorrow if the opportunity arises, and he’s good, get back on the horse.”
On the walk of No. 8 hitter setting up the blown save for Kimbrel
“It usually starts that way. Especially late in the game, it starts so innocently with a walk or a mishandled ball, and the next thing you know you’re staring right down the barrel of a tying run scoring.”
Two-day microcosm of closer trade, the highs and lows?
“And guess what, we got their closer. Heyward hit the home run off of Reed, their closer. I’m sure Gibby (Kirk Gibson) told him just like I am, get him right back on the horse. That’s the way it is – short-term memory, and the sooner you get them back out there the better.”
On Simmons pitching the eighth again and whether we can expect to see him in that role as setup man
“You know what, we’ll see. We’ll see. I feel, from what I’ve seen, I feel enough confidence that I’ll run him in there. The thing with a young kid, you don’t know how much you can use him days in a row. But yeah, (the pressure of the situation) doesn’t seem to bother him. Right now, the way we’re going, he could be potentially a guy that we could use in that role.”
On what he told Kimbrel in dugout
“Just a little conversation, patting him on the leg a little bit, and told him he’s human, go get ‘em tomorrow.”
On Uggla two errors early, then good play when he fielded ball and shoveled to first in one motion in 11th
“He made a nice play there. I thought maybe (the errors were) just a matter of just not being out there, being rusty, because he’s pretty solid defensively. But he bounced back, as professional as he is, and made a terrific play there in the last inning.”
On Delgado striking out three straight Braves in heart of order after Freeman leadoff walk in 11th
“He’s got a big arm. He punches out three there in that inning. He’s capable of doing that.”
**ERVIN SANTANA
On working out of trouble most of the night
“I had a couple of problems in a few innings, but was able to keep getting big outs in big situations.”
On getting in sync with Gattis after appearing to not be on same page in first inning or two
“After that first inning we just talked about it and just got back to the simple stuff and tried to be on the same page.”
What was the problem with communication or not being on same page early?
“Baseball problems. Everybody has problems.”
On pitching better with runners on base tonight, getting out of jams
“I just want to make every good pitch and keep the ball down for the most parts, and then I was just able to do it in big situations with men in scoring position.”
**CRAIG KIMBREL
On his blown save
“You don’t walk guys and let them steal second. I mean, that’s kind of what happens when you let a guy get two free bases like that. A base hit just inside the line scores a run and we’ve got a tie ballgame and extra innings. So it was a tough game. Ervin went out and threw well. We had big hits at good times. Even the top of the next inning, Jason coming up and hitting the homer, was big too.
“It was a tough game. I felt we played good enough to win, it just didn’t turn out that way.”
The walk will stick with you the most?
“Yeah, walks always kill you. I mean, you can ask any pitcher. It wasn’t a leadoff walk, but a walk in an inning seems to find a way to score every now and then.”
Fredi said he told you don’t worry about it, you’re human
“Yeah, it kind of sucks, you give up one run and it’s blown. I’m going to give up runs; pitchers give up runs. It just seems like at times this year they’re one-run ballgames when I do. It’s unfortunate, but you’ve got to go out there next time and make sure it doesn’t happen.”
On bouncing back from this, the nature of being a closer
“You’ve still got to go out there and do your job, no matter how bad you feel about what happened the day before. So, we can put this game behind us and come out and win the series tomorrow.”
**JASON HEYWARD
On Kimbrel blowing a save, then team bouncing back and showing some positive signs offensively
“(Aaron) Hill — there’s very few guys in this game that match up OK or well against Craig, and (Hill’s) approach is really simple right there. Not trying to do too much, see the ball out over the plate and just put a good swing on it. That’s what he did there.
“It happens. Craig’s blown a save before. But he held them right there, we came back, go up a run, and boom, they went out there and put up some at-bats and put together a win late in the game.”
On Santana bouncing back with good start
“Absolutely. Him and Gat (Evan Gattis), I know they were trying to figure out what they wanted to do early on, but they settled in nicely and it was his win right there in the ninth inning. You know, things happen. It’s part of baseball.”
On his homer giving team a lead again
“Me or whoever, we were able to come back and get the lead. Regardless of who did it, it was just nice to stay in the game right there and keep fighting. We had an opportunity to win and they made the most of it. They put some ABs together and that broken-bat hit there at the end, it looks like a line drive tomorrow (in the boxscore).”
