**CHRIS JOHNSON
On getting thrown out early, watching rest of loss
“I’m one of those guys that wants to be in the game the whole time, and wants to be in that spot. So yeah, I’m kicking myself a little bit.”
Did you say a ‘magic word’ or two to cause ump to throw you out?
“You’d have to ask him. I’m sure there were a couple of things I said that he didn’t like, so he said that was it for me.”
Was it the call on the last pitch, or all the pitches, you disagreed with?
“It wasn’t the last pitch. I thought I swung at the last pitch (checked swing, listed as called third strike by official scorer). Just the whole at-bat, I thought maybe there were some pitches in that at-bat that weren’t strikes. In a big situation. Obviously we didn’t have that situation come up much in this game, off a really good pitcher.”
Were you surprised you got ejected, did you think you said enough to warrant that?
“I didn’t feel like I said enough. I obviously knew that I threw my helmet down, and he let me know that it was an equipment fine. But then he thought that there should be a little more, so…”
On having to watch rest of game on a night when Braves had only one hit in first seven innings
“We could have had 12 hits and I still would have been, ‘Man, I want to be up.’ Every time my spot came up, I was like, ‘Man, I’d be hitting right here.’
“You know, looking back, I probably should have just taken it and wore it, and just chalked it up to one of those things that didn’t work out very well for me.”
And of course, Janish comes up with two out and runner on in ninth
“Of course, why wouldn’t he come up? But hey, Janish is my guy. I was in here rooting as hard as anybody for him to get a hit or hit a double or hit one out of here. We have a lot of confidence in Janish, too. I don’t want to say if I were hitting there I would have done anything special. And (Marlins closer Steve) Cishek’s pretty good.”
On the streak ending
“We just got beat. I don’t think anybody in here thought that we were going to win out. We have a lot of respect for that ballclub over there, a lot of respect for that guy (Eovaldi) on the mound who pitched tonight and did well. Just got beat, is all.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On the pitching matchup
“That was pretty darn good by both guys. Eovaldi was really good, and Woody was good. He matched him zero for zero, we just couldn’t get anything going. I thought Woody really did a good job, for a kid experiencing this for the first time. Rain delay, sitting around for an hour, going back out there. I thought it was a big start for him.”
Not many options after Chris Johnson gets thrown out that early
“No, it’s hard when the guy who’s leading the league in hitting gets thrown out of the game. But you can’t control your temper sometimes. It’s competitiveness, and he’s probably the No. 1 competitive guy we have on our club. Right there and then, he thought that the strikes that were called were balls.
“You feel good about Janish catching the ball. He made a couple of nice plays defensively. But yeah, you’d rather have C.J. getting three or four at-bats. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. Guys get a little upset sometimes.”
How close was Wood to a time limit, where you wouldn’t have brought him back (came back after 54-minute rain delay)
“Not very close. I don’t think so, because it was only the first inning. He came up here and we had him throw (simulated innings during the rain delay). He got up twice, that’s why we didn’t go back out there in the seventh inning, even though his pitch count was in the high 80s. You’ve got to count the pitches he threw in here to stay warm.”
On not using Terdoslavich to hit with 2-out ninth, because defensive liability if game continues?
“Yeah. And you feel good that Pauly’s going to give you a good at-bat. It was never a situation where he could do something that he does well, either hit-and-run or bunt. That scenario never came up. You know, it is what it is. We had some other guys who had some opportunities. With one run, the way our offense is, you can put a crooked run up in a hurry, and we didn’t tonight.”
On Eovaldi’s impressive performance for Marlins
“Somebody told me that he carries his fastball deeper in ballgame than anybody in our league, average-wise (velocity). And tonight he was 97, 98 miles per hour almost the whole night. Pretty darn good. Sometimes you run into a pitcher like this, and we matched zeroes all the way to the ninth inning. Come back out tomorrow and win the series. That’s what our goal is the whole time.”
Is Walden’s hand OK (hit by grounder, came out in ninth inning)
“Yeah, there’s nothing the X-rays showed. I’m sure that he’ll be sore for the next couple of days, but that’s better than the alternative, having a broken bone.”
**ALEX WOOD
On the pitcher’s duel with Nathan Eovaldi
“It was fun going out there and battling against a guy like that. He’s putting up zeroes and you’re putting up zeroes, just trying to keep us close and give us a chance to stay within striking distance. We just didn’t come out on top tonight. One of those days.”
Do you feel like you continued your steady progress since moving into rotation?
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like I’m really starting to hit my stride. I felt really good. It’s the first time I’ve thrown to Gattis, so we got together for a little while before the game and talked about what we wanted to do, our game plan. And we got there in the third and fourth innings and started really clicking. We were on the same page, and it was really good tonight.”
Seemed like you pitched even better after the nearly one-hour rain delay
“Yeah, I think from both sides. From the top of the first, a couple of pitches I threw, especially the first one to Yelich, I thought was a strike. And then obviously C.J., when he got tossed in the bottom of the first. I think (the rain delay) let everyone cool down a little bit and kind of re-focus. It was probably good from my standpoint and the guy behind the plate tonight. He ended up doing an awesome job, too.”
On the streak ending
“It stinks. I mean, it was bound to end sometime. What we’ve done the past three-fourths of a month, whatever it’s been, has been pretty special. We’ve been playing great ball from every aspect – hitting, pitching, defense. And tonight we pitched well and played great defense, and the bats just weren’t there. So it’s just one of those days in baseball. Get back to the grind tomorrow and hopefully start a new winning streak.”
**JASON HEYWARD
On Eovaldi
“I think I put up some good at-bats against him. I definitely feel like he’s tougher on righties, with the way his ball moves, the wild movement on his fastball, but still around the zone. He spots up at times when he needs to. He’s always had the velocity, and he’s gotten better every time out. We’ve seen him working very hard to improve.”
On streak ending with a 1-0 game, only three hits, etc.
“Well, you’ve got to tip your hat if a guy throws well enough to keep you to one hit for that long. You’ve got to tip your hat to him. A loss is a loss. You don’t want to lose. You try not to give away games, try not to give away at-bats. Tonight’s over. Fourteen games. Great job. We’ll just come back tomorrow and play some more baseball and take care of winning this series.”
**JORDAN WALDEN
On the ninth-inning leadoff triple he gave up
“I don’t know what happened on that. He hit it, so…”
Was pitch where you wanted it?
“No, it was a little up and away. He hit it.”
And what was the wild pitch?
“It was a slider down. Tough break, man.”
Where did the ball hit you, on top of the hand?
“Yeah, it got me right here. It’s pretty swollen. It’s not broken, so we’re good. I had an X-ray already.”
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