FREDI GONZALEZ
On Medlen
“I think he just left a couple of balls up, one to Peralta and one to Infante. But other than that, he gave us a good opportunity. We didn’t get a shut-down inning. We scored a couple and then we let them back in with a couple of runs. Same thing in the eighth inning, we get back within one run and we couldn’t get through the eighth inning. They got a couple of runs and had a three-run lead in the ninth. It’s a little different, a three-run lead in the ninth instead of a one-run lead. It eliminates a lot of stuff that we could do offensively, when you’ve got three runs.
“They got some guys on base and made us pay for it.”
Looked like Medlen couldn’t put away hitter after getting ahead
“Yeah, a couple of the balls were just up in the strike zone a little bit. It’s a good hitting club. You can’t do that. They don’t give away at-bats.”
On bottom half of the Detroit batting order hurting Braves
“Infante’s done a good job against us. He’s gotten three or four hits and some big RBIs, like the one in the eighth inning. He seems to be a thorn in our side, even when he was playing with the Marlins. I think he walked us off a few years ago against Kimbrel, down in the old stadium down (at Miami), I remember that one.
“It’s not an easy lineup to navigate. It’s hard. It’s a lineup that if you don’t make a play — not that we made errors – but if you don’t make a play and give them an extra out of extra opportunities, they’re going to make you pay for it.”
On the play where Uggla dropped Simmons’ shovel toss, erasing potential double play
“That’s a tough play. Most shortstops in this league, that ball might have gone through. But with Simmons’ range and ability to get there, we almost turned two. I think if Danny catches that ball, with Miggy running we have a chance. Those are the plays I’m talking about. We don’t get an out there, and here they come, they put a big number up.”
On Porcello
“He wiggled out of some situations. Porcello made some pitches when he had to and got out of some of those jams.”
**KRIS MEDLEN
On leaving some pitches over plate
“Yeah, it’s a difficult lineup to get through when you have your ‘A’ game, and I obviously did not. The hanging curveball to Peralta, he did what he’s supposed to do with that. With Omar I thought I made a pretty good pitch but it just wasn’t up enough. We’ve seen him here enough to know that’s what he does with that pitch if you don’t execute it. He hit it pretty good.
“Overall, I thought the damage was done on two pitches. For me to be successful I need to be able to pitch to both sides of the plate, and I could not get glove-side. I tried to make as many adjustments as I could, and I couldn’t get any lefties consistently for strikes to even have them offer at stuff like that. I can’t just try to sink lefties away, because they’re just going to be diving out. Same thing with the righties — I was trying to go away fastballs, and four-seamers AND two-seamers were running back over.”
“All the singles that they got were just fastballs middle that were running back over the plate. I wasn’t able to make the adjustment. I think given the circumstances I think I battled OK. It was done on two pitches, really.”
More frustrating to give up those big hits after being ahead in count, including 0-2 to Infante?
“I had some pretty deep counts, but I was 0-2, 1-2 on guys, standing on the mound like, ‘What the hell am I supposed to throw right now? I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing for this guy right now.’ So you just go out there and try to make pitches, and they’re just not working that day. Obviously I’m trying to make the adjustments, and they just didn’t work. Every pitcher, every hitter is going to get their ass kicked at some point this year, and hopefully this was my day today to get my butt kicked a little bit. Like I said, I tried to go out there and battle my ass off, but they did some damage with a couple of pitches.”
Are you throwing your changeup like you used to?
“Yeah, same exact way. It’s just early on I’ve been throwing more curveballs than changeups, so I don’t necessarily know if I have the feel that I normally have with it. But I think I threw some good ones today. Down and in to righties. I got Cabrera to roll over on one. I got swing-and-miss from Fielder, too. I think I was throwing some good ones, just not consistent to get the job done.
“Like I said, anytime I can’t throw fastballs to both sides, I’m going to get crushed that day. And that was today.”
On team struggling for past week
“We’re playing good teams, running into teams that are playing well and … obviously you never want to make excuses, but I think we’re ready to play at Turner Field. We’ve had the long stretchof 16 out of 18 on the road, it’s coming to a screeching halt this road trip. But we’re going out there and battling. Obviously Anibal yesterday absolutely dealt, he had some great stuff. And today, Porcello bounces back from a pretty bad outing. He’s got good stuff, too. You run into guys like that, you’re going to have some fits at the plate. We scored enough runs to win, but I didn’t keep them off the scoreboard.”
On his fastball velocity
“I looked up at the scoreboard near the end and saw some 87s (mph). I just don’t think I was using my legs as much as I should have. I was using all arm, really, and I think that was probably the problem from the get-go, from the very beginning. When I’m able to locate, I’m able to drive my legs and drive my body to where I want to locate. And today I just felt like I was planting and just, like, spinning my upper body to get it there. Just mechanically wasn’t clicking today. I felt like I made a couple of good pitches, but a bunch of really bad ones.”
On using the old-school, swinging-arms, full windup on first pitch of first inning (on a four-pitch walk), a tribute sort of thing since it was Negro Leagues tribute game and you were wearing the throwback uniforms?
“Yeah. Joking around with Huddy about it and joking around with Roger about it, it was like, ‘You won’t do it’ kind of thing. It was more a tribute. I wasn’t messing around, I was trying to throw a strike. That was actually the best pitch of the at-bat, was that first one. But it negated the walk, with the pickoff. So it’s all good.”
**JUSTIN UPTON
On Porcello
“He’s got good stuff. He didn’t let us really get anything going. We had some runners on and he defused the situations pretty well. We never had that big inning. We only had the one inning where we put some runs on the board.”
On Porcello retiring 12 of 13 after three-run inning
“I think at some points we got a little aggressive on him and didn’t get our pitches to hit. Sometimes that happens. You start feeling like we’re ready to break though and put some runs on the board and you get aggressive. And it didn’t work out in our favor.”
Feel like one of those weeks where it seems like everything is going to go wrong?
“I don’t think everything’s going to go wrong, but this has been a long road trip. We haven’t been home much. It’s starting to weigh on us a little bit, I think. We’ve got to find it somewhere deep down where we can get this next one and salvage the road trip and get back home.”
