DENVER — Braves quotes from Chris Johnson, Matt Wisler, Jonny Gomes and Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday’s 3-2 walk-off loss to the Rockies.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Jason Grilli’s injury (interview was 30 minutes before announcement of Grilli ruptured Achilles tendon)
“He’s still getting evaluated right now, so I don’t know what the extent of it is. But him laying on the ground like that, it didn’t look good. I don’t think there’s any broken bones, but we’ll see what happens.”
On the game
“We played good baseball. We had opportunities there with (runners at) second and third, or first and third, or bases loaded, and just couldn’t get it done. But we pitched well. We just didn’t score runs, and in this ballpark when you get those opportunities (and don’t cash in) it’ll come back and haunt you.”
On the game-ending single that fell between Simmons and Maybin
“Just a fly ball. Really I haven’t had time to sit down and digest it, my mind was thinking a little bit more about what’s going on with Grilli. The only thing I can say is either of those guys are real good about catching fly balls, whether Simmons is going back or Maybin’s coming in. I really haven’t had a time to digest how it (happened).”
What about about Wisler’s performance
“All this stuff going on in the back end of the game overshadows his pretty darn good outing. There was a lot of stuff happening, decisions that both managers have to make. But Wisler was terrific.”
Did he show you some poise after giving up that two-run homer in first?
“Especially at this place, with a young pitcher experiencing it for the first time. But I tell you what, this is only his fifth start, but I’ve seen some savviness. He pitches more like a veteran than like a rookie, he really does. That’s something good to see.”
On the big strikeouts by Vizcaino and Avilan to end seventh inning with runners on corners
“We got out of the inning there and we got a chance to do something. We got people on base, we just couldn’t get them in.”
On Wisler’s slider, didn’t seem to be affected by altitude
“Yeah, we saw the slider, we saw velocity, and we saw command of the fastball. As we saw in the first two days here, if you miss location with this team, they’ll make you hurt. They’ll make you pay for it. And he didn’t.
“We walk Arenado there to face Tulowitzki (in the seventh) or the catcher earlier in the game – that’s pretty good stuff there.”
More on Grilli injury
“We’ll see the extent of it. But the pain that he was in on the field, it doesn’t…. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.” (Please note, again, this interview was 30 minutes before Braves announced Grilli ruptured his Achilles.)
On whether he thought Chris Johnson could have had a double if he ran out of the box right away
“I haven’t even seen that. I don’t want to comment because I didn’t see it during the game live, that’s something we’ll look at later one. But if that did happen, then shame on us. Maybe he thought it was foul or something. Gonzalez made a great throw to second base. I’m not sure what happened there (with Johnson).”
**MATT WISLER
On keeping his poise after the two-run homer
“Yeah, I think that’s one of the best I’ve felt all year. Keeping the ball down in the zone, mixing speeds, the slider was good today. On the homer that was just bad location, left it above his hands where he could get to it. But other than that, felt really good today.”
Was that the best the slider has felt for you?
“Yeah, that was very sharp today. Getting ahead with it in, burying it when I needed to, getting the extension on it so I’d get swing-and-miss on it. Just keep doing that hopefully.”
Did you think the slider would be good in this environment, some other pitchers say breaking stuff not sharp here
“Yeah, I pitched at elevations some last year (in the Pacific Coast League), I learned how to do that. The main thing is you have to get extension on it. The ones that you kind of don’t get through, just stay up. But if you throw it right, those are the ones that still break. I worked on it yesterday when I was playing catch.”
If you can pitch here, give you confidence that you can pitch just about anywhere?
“Yeah, just take this start hopefully into the second half, start building on this. Getting through the sixth inning finally.”
On the two strikes out of Tulo and Gonzalez with a runner on in the second inning
“To get quality hitters out like that, who’ve been in the league for a while, to strike those guys out like that is always a confidence boost.”
**JONNY GOMES
On Grilli’s injury
“Not ideal. The guy’s a grinder. Guy’s a nomad, been around. Everything that he’s about, hard work and health, that’s what’s got him here. We’ll just hope for the best with the MRI and whatnot, quick recovery.”
On the game, missed opportunities
“Interesting ballpark. We’d play in, they hit some triples over our head. They bloop some in when we move back. I’ve been here before, there’s not a method to the madness in this ballpark. You play in, they go over your head, you play back, they drop in.”
On walk-off bloop single
“Tough to defend. There’s one out, so it’s not like, lay out, catch it, inning’s over. Simmons playing for the double play. Just didn’t fall our way.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
Did you think your hit was foul initially (didn’t run out of box right away, got thrown out by RF Gonzalez on slide at second base)
“Yeah, I was steering it fair, and it bounced right to him. CarGo made a pretty good throw….”
When you see it bounce right to him, too late to turn back?
“I was already headed that way, so… Trying to be aggressive, put a little pressure there. I just got caught looking at it out of the box. When it’s right down the line you’ve got a tendency to kind of just stare at it as I’m running a little bit. I wish I could go back and just not look at it and go, and if it’s fair it’s fair, if it’s foul.”
On Grilli’s injury
“I saw it first-hand. I was about to throw him the ball and I saw the look in his face when he was going down. I was like, Oh, man, that’s not good at all. He just started screaming. It looked pretty darn painful. I don’t know what the diagnosis is yet, but it didn’t look good.”
