PHILADELPHIA — Braves quotes from Matt Wisler, Freddie Freeman and Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday’s 12-2 loss at Philly.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wisler’s performance and the loss
“The breaking ball to Rupp was probably the biggest one. Out over the plate, just kind of spun in the air, and he hit it out of the ballpark. All the home runs they hit were with people on base, a lot of damage. Their guys right now, they’ve been swinging the bats since they came out of the All-Star break. They’re really good, young talented team that’s hot and swinging the bats. We made some mistakes over the plate against them, got behind in the count a couple of times, and they made us pay for it.”
Is this just an inevitable part of the growing pains for such a young team
“This is part of the growing pains. This is exactly what you’re going to get, you’re going to get two or three good outings by a young pitcher, then you’re going to get a bad one. Hopefully — I know with Wis the learning curve is short – he’ll go back out in five days and get it back on track.”
Does it make it any easier to stomach losses like this when you know the moves were made for the future, or is just as hard as it is to watch?
“No, it isn’t (easier). Because you’ve got to develop, you’ve got to develop a winning attitude, and losses like this are not good for anybody.”
On rookie Aaron Nola’s performance for Phillies
“At one point it seemed like him and Wisler were almost the same guy. Identicial delivery, same type of pitchers. He got away with a couple of pitches that we didn’t. He’s got a lot of pitches.”
On Wisler’s rebound
“As far as that’s concerned, his psyche, he’s got great makeup. Competitive. And he’ll be fine. He’ll rarrle off five or six (good) starts. That’s just part of being a young pitchers. There’s no place you can put them, there’s not a simulator. You’ve got to let them go out there and let them experience these games and learn from it, and he’ll be better off in the long run.”
Markakis gets leadoff homer and you get two runs in first, are you thinking maybe tonight the offense breaks out?
“Yeah, you figure, let’s not stop scoring. But Nola did a nice job, he kind of settled down and gave them five solid innings.”
** MATT WISLER
On his outing
“I didn’t have great stuff today, but the big one was that three-run home run (by Rupp). Eight-hole (hitter), pitcher on deck, I’ve got to execute that pitch better. Cost us pretty bad with that one.”
Just a hanging slider?
“Yeah, tried to get ahead with it. It spun, it didn’t break, it stayed up and he put a good swing on it.”
Did you feel like you had the stuff to battle through it after giving up run in first, the next couple of innings solid?
“Yeah, I didn’t feel that bad. The first few innings went pretty well. The first inning a double, quick run, didn’t really make too bad a pitches that inning. Reallyl the one pitch (to Rupp, three-run homer) is really the one I’m upset about it. Obviously frustrated with the loss; I needed to pitch better today for the team to get a win. But that three-run homer, it just can’t happen.”
Did rough fourth inning carry over to the fifth?
“I’m just trying, my goal, my mindset for that fifth inning is just get through the sixth inning, keep it at five runs, keep us in the game. I just went up there and kind of got behind, (Herrera) put a good swing, I threw him a pitch right down the middle.”
On going through growing pains and how everyone – Smoltz, Glavine, everyone – has gone through it
“Yeah, I’ve just got to learn from it, take some stuff – whatever I was struggling with – and fix it in the bullpen this week, come back out ready for the next outing.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On getting off to promising start, then nothing after 2 runs in 1st inning
“That’s the second time we’ve done that in the last few days, where we got a couple of runs in the first inning, three to four hits, then nothing seemed to happen after that. You know, every single day we come to the yard, keep putting in our work and just hoping for it to click. And when you get off to a nice start in the first inning like that, you think it’s going to be today. But obviously it wasn’t today, so, come back tomorrow and hopefully it changes.”
On Wisler’s performance
“Wis left a couple of balls up, fell behind in a couple of counts and had to throw the heater. Good hitters don’t miss ‘em in there. They’re hot; they’re the hottest team in baseball right now, so you make a mistake, they’re going to make you pay for it. They had the big hits, a couple of three-run homers. They just got guys on and got them in today.”
On dealing with growing pains for young pitchers, young players
“Obviously the first few years of my career, I’m used to winning. Last year was the first year of losing, now we’re in the midst of losing again right now. But you know that I went through growing pains when I was a rookie, they’re going to go through growing pains, and we’re going to be waiting for them on the other side. This is what the team is all about, we’re going to go through our rough stretches, and we’re in the midst of one right now. Hopefully they have a couple of rough starts but then get right back on the horse and see if we can start winning some ballgames the last couple of months.”
