ST. LOUIS — Braves quotes from Aaron Harang, Jason Heyward and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Cardinals and Gonzalez's first ejection of the season.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On fair-ball call that led to his ejection, looked foul on replay
“Yeah, after looking at it at the plate … it’s a tough call when you’ve got to make a call that way. After coming back here, it was close, but I thought maybe 5-6 inches foul when Yadi got it. But it’s a tough job, it’s a tough situation. They’ve got to make the call, there’s no help really, and that’s what I kept asking, can we get some help from one of the (umpires) down the lines.
“What are you going to do? We still only scored one run. That would have been a nice opportunity to try it again, to try to advance a runner there with Harang. But it didn’t materialize. We score a run on a throwing error, pretty much that’s all we had the rest of the game.”
On Harang
“What else can you ask from him? We got six innings from him, he gave up three runs (two earned), got himself a base hit. We’ve just got to get the bats going.”
On couple of prime scoring opportunities in the fifth and eighth innings, no runs out of them
“With the right people up. In the eighth I think with Freeman, (runners at) first and second. They bring in Randy Choate and induce a double play. But just … keep grinding. Keep battling. One of the few things you can control as a coach or manager is play hard. And I see guys jumping all over the plate. B.J. made a great catch on a sinking line drive early in the game. Justin tried to leave his feat on the ball Adams hit, a sinking line drive. The guys are playing hard. That’s pretty much the only thing you can control. Everything else is out of your hands. You check the temperature of the club every single day, and nobody likes to lose but I haven’t seen anybody put their head down. Couple of wins will get us even in a better mood.”
What about B.J., (4 strikeouts) is he just trying too hard or what?
“I don’t know. He’s had a tough road trip so far. We’ll keep working and keep trying to get him better, because we’ve seen him pretty good.”
Fair to say Harang deserved better the way he threw today?
“I think so. A couple of the runs he gave up were just a couple of well-placed bunts in the infield. They played small ball today and executed really well with moving runners, and even the squeeze with Adams at third base. If he continues to pitch that way, we’ve got to get a lot of wins for him. He just keeps going out there every fifth day and giving us an opportunity to win every time out.”
You and Greg Walker have said early on this trip you’re looking for more competitive at-bats. Seen any of that?
“I’ve seen it in spurts. Simmons had a terrific day, gives you a good at-bat. Heyward’s giving you some great at-bats, had two hits today. He’s gotten on base. Chris Johnson. That’s three or four guys. We just need to continue that down the line.”
When you came back on the field a second time after ejection, what was that about?
“I don’t even want to talk about that. It’s over with. I got ejected. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
**JASON HEYWARD
On the pop fly in shallow right that turned into sac fly when Pastornicky caught it fading back in front of you
“That was a tough one, man, because I try not to call him (off) unless I know for sure I’ve got it. I know he had a bead on that one, and by the time I realized I could get there it would have been tough to call him off. So you had to let him make the play. Heads-up play on their part by sending the runner.”
Same scenario as last year when he drifted back and you guys collided (Pastornicky torn ACL from that)
“Yeah, I mean he’s getting more comfortable with it. I keep telling him, you will hear me if I’m calling you off. He’s been tough about it, real tough about it, out there playing real well for us right now. It was a tough break. Heads-up play though (by the Cardinals).”
On Harang pitching well
“Yeah, he did, man. We were absolutely in the game. The Cardinals are a team you have to show up and execute small things, that’s how they beat you. Obviously they have the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but that’s not their goal and mindset each day. Their mindset is to do the little things right. They got guys on with bunts, the guys that came up behind them took a single, put the ball in play, and they were able to scratch some runs off.”
On the Braves’ offense, hitting into double plays today twice after his singles
“The guys behind me, J-Up hit his really hard right at somebody. And Free, Free’s been the man for us and is going to continue to be the man for us. The right guys, right situation, just didn’t happen that time. You would like it to happen every time, but if that was the case you could go ahead and write their Hall of Fame ballots.”
On Cardinals sending Wong on the sac fly to Pastornicky in shallow RF
“It was a heads-up play. As a third-base coach I’m kind of telling my guy, pay attention to who catches this ball and see how he catches it. It would have been a tough play for anybody to make, especially when he was going back and he kind of caught it off-balance. I felt like I would have caught it the same way, kind of off-balance, and would have had to gather myself to make a throw probably.”
On the Harang bunt call going against Braves
“Bunts are part of the game and you like to execute them as many times as possible, because it does pass the torch so to speak. Simmons led off with a double there, and that’s all you can do as a pitcher is try to move a guy along. You’d like that call to go your way. But at the end of the day, to be honest, my mindset is, with the offense not doing as good as we can, I still like where we are in the standings right now in our division. We’ve still got a lot of baseball left to play.”
**AARON HARANG
Rough day, to pitch as well as you did, then have bunt call go against you, etc.
“Yeah, what stinks is that those little plays like that sometimes change the tempo of the game. If it gets called foul and then I can get another one down, move Simba over to third, and the next ball’s a ground ball to short, then a run scores. So, it’s tough. I mean, it’s one of those plays that isn’t reviewable. It’s going to happen. But I had to go out there and keep pitching, and we just weren’t able to get to their pitchers more.”
Things like that more magnified the way things going last 2-3 weeks for you guys?
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve had a few of those plays recently that definitely change the momentum of the game. The play at third the other day, that changes the flow of the game. But we’ve just got to figure out a way to move past it when it happens, and keep going out there and getting after it.”
You stayed in the batter’s box, were you arguing?
“Yeah. I said a few things, and pointed to where it hit. I mean, the guy (Molina) almost ran into me, I had to jump out of the way. But it is what it is. Can’t do anything about it now. Just got to move forward.”
On Cardinals bunting a lot and manufacturing runs today
“That’s what you have to do sometimes when you’re not able to put swings (on pitches), small ball will take over a game. Those two guys, they’re fast. If you can lay bunts down the way they did, they are bunts that are just past me but short enough to make them tough plays for the infield. When you get burners on, they can kind of cause havoc on the bases. It changes the whole aspect of how you’ve got to go out and pitch guys. Make sure you’re changing your times (to the plate) and changing your holds and, you know, giving your catcher a good opportunity to make a good throw to the base. Those kind of guys are pesty guys on the bases. It’s always good to have those guys when they do get on.”
