WASHINGTON — Braves quotes from Shelby Miller, Nick Swisher, Cameron Maybin and Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday’s 8-2 loss to the Nationals.
**SHELBY MILLER
How frustrating is it on night like this, when it seems like you’ve got your best stuff and things go awry like that?
“Obviously I’m frustrated. I mean, tough way to kind of try to be that guy to turn things around, and for it to happen like that is kind of rough, go out and give up seven runs, especially on the rough streak we’re having. That’s just icing on the cake as far as frustration. But we’ve just got to go out there and continue to try to battle, man. I mean, obviously we’re on a little rough streak. Everybody knows that. We know it, fans know it, we all know it. But it’s all about trying to turn it around.
Seemed like you were on top of your game first two innings, in control
“I felt like I had good stuff the whole time. I mean, it’s just one of those days where you go out and they put some good swings on some balls, and things kind of didn’t go our way. At the end of the day it’s a tough team to play against. They’re playing great baseball coming into this. Obviously we’re not playing the best baseball.”
** NICK SWISHER
Strange couple of innings for Shelby, things kind of unraveled behind him
“Yeah, we’ve been trying to stick together as a team, but it’s been tough. I think right now with where we’re at, I wish I had the answer. I wish I could wave a magic want to change everything around, but I think right now we’re kind of at the bottom, and we’ve really got to pull together as a team and as a unit, and figure out what we’re going to do. Are we just going to pack it in, or are we going to come to the ballpark every day with a chip on our shoulder and get after somebody?
“Right now with where we’re at, it’s frustrating, it’s tough. But we’ve got some ballers in here, man. We’ve got some guys who can play. There’s what, 27, 28 more games left, something like that? We’ve got to make a run, we’ve got to pick this thing up. Because you don’t want to have this going into the offseason.”
Does it feel like guys in here are sometimes trying to do too much, especially for Shelby, trying to get him a win?
“I know it’s been a difficult time for Shelby, for sure. But just in general for this team, we’re just trying to put a W up on the board. We don’t care who’s on the mound, who’s pitching, whatever. We just want to get a W. It’s tough, but you know what? We’re going to see if we’ve got some balls on this squad. Because we’ve got a lot of games left. We’re playing a lot of teams that are contending. It’s not going to be an easy road for us, so we’re going to have to pick it up.”
On a personal level, does it feel like you’re getting your bat speed back?
“Yeah, it’s a lot better, man. It’s nice to feel healthy again and know you can go out and contribute to your team. It’s been kind of a whirlwind season for me, I’ve been kind of all around. Had spring training in Ohio for three weeks (his rehab assignment), and just right now, being with this crew right now I couldn’t be more happy. I know things aren’t going the way that we wanted them to, but I wouldn’t want to be with anybody else right now. We’ve got a lot of talent in here. We’ve got to dig deep and find it.”
**CAMERON MAYBIN
On his corneal abrasion that was diagnosed Saturday
“I was having a tough time seeing out of my left eye the past three or four days. But, you know, things happen during the season, you just go out and keep playing. I was having a tough time, but today was the worst days. I’ve been telling them I have a tough time seeing out of my left eye. The doctor came and looked at it and said I had a corneal abrasion, a pretty good scratch on my cornea, which is the reason I was having a tough time seeing. It’s just unfortunate. It’s like one of those things where it’s always something. I’ve been doing a good job of staying on the field, staying healthy. Again, I’ve been playing with it for, like, four days nows, kind of foggy, trying to turn my head a little bit more when I hit to try to get my other eye on the ball. Today, come to find out I actually irritated it more messing with my contacts, trying to figure out what was going on. He said I probably scratched the cornea even more. So I need (stop wearing the contacts temporarily) to give my eye a chance to heal up.”
Will you play in glasses for a few days?
“No, I’ve never played in glasses. I’ll probably look at trying to get some of those Oakleys at first, but at the end of the day he said I just need to take a day or so off and let that cornea heal. It’s good to know what it was. Going into the fourth day and not knowing, it was kind of making me nervouse. But at least I know now…. Your body feels good and you have something like that happen.”
On the fly ball he couldn’t see that fell for a double to start four-run inning
“I keep apologizing to Shelby. He’s played with me long enough, I’ve played under some tough skies but again, I told him as soon as it went up, I never saw it. That’s one of those things where you’ve got to have your vision. I went to Skip (Fredi Gonzalez) and pretty much told him, I can’t help anybody if I can’t see. Today was the worst day of it.”
** FREDI GONZALEZ
Shelby seemed to be in control of the game until the defensive miscues
“Yeah, not only the runs scored but the amount of pitches after what would have been the third out. That’s the thing that kind of hurts. But again, it’s the type of night, at dusk, that ball falls down (for a double) and he just wasn’t able to cover it up. Later on, (missed) fly ball down the foul line — tough play for (third baseman Hector) Olivera, but you know, the way Harper is swinging right now you can’t give him an extra swing there. That cost us a run.
“We didn’t play very good defense behind him. The wild pitch, that little swinging bunt got two runs. So it’s not only the runs and the ERA, but also a lot of (additional) pitches.”
Seems like Shelby is starting to show some frustration
“No, I think sometimes he gets the competitive edge, but it’s not showing up his teammates at all. He’s mad at himself that he couldn’t cover up (miscues) that inning for his teammates.”
On Gio Gonzalez
“He was effectively wild. I know we had him in some (hitter’s) counts, and he came back and got some strikeouts.”
Was Maybin’s missed fly ball related to the contact-lens situation?
“They called it an abrasion; he scratched his eye there. I’m sure it wasn’t the full culprit – it was the time of night where we’ve seen almost every outfielder in major league baseball lose balls like that — but that probably didn’t help any that he had a tough time seeing.”
On the play at the plate when Bethancourt missed the tag on Escobar, did he still think he had time to flip the ball to Miller and have him tag Escobar?
“I didn’t even ask him about that play at that point.”
