Braves quotes from Matt Wisler, Christian Bethancourt and Fredi Gonzalez after Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Yankees.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wisler bouncing back with a good start after some rough ones
“I thought Wisler was outstanding. He gives up the bloop double (to start the game), got himself in trouble, only gave up one run (that inning). Then everything else was nails. We matched (Yankees starter Luis) Severino pitch-for-pitch. (Cameron Maybin) kind of got turned around on the ball in center field a little bit, I know the wind took it from him a little bit. All of a sudden he gives up another run. But for me, he did a lot of good stuff today, especially after right at a 30-pitch first inning. He came in, settled in, gave us another 5 1/3 innings of good, solid pitching performance. You can’t ask anything more from him.”
On Wisler stepping up his game against the Yankees in front of sellout crowd
“And I think that was a little bit of it, he was a little bit charged up in the first inning. But I tell you what, he settled down and he was good. He was really good. You can’t pick at anything he did. Actually you’ve got to give him some kudos on that first inning, how he got out of it after a 30-pitch inning (with only one run).
“We had some opportunities offensively, but that kid (Severino) has got a pretty good arm. That’s what they’re supposed to look like, right there. We just didn’t get good swings at him when we had some people on base.”
On Simmons striking out on pitch that looked inside with two runners on to end eighth
“I haven’t (seen the replay), but Seitz (hitting coach Kevin Seitzer) and Horacio (Ramirez, Braves video-replay coordinator) said it stayed in. It’s just one of those things. You hate for a ball to be called a strike when it could change the whole game on a (2-2) count.”
What did you see when the fan fell from the upper deck? (This interview conducted before announcement that the man who fell died)
“I didn’t see anything. I’m getting bits and pieces of news here. I don’t know how to comment other than, we’re thinking about the family. All these guys came in in a somber mood, because if they’re hearing the same thing I’m hearing, some of the news we’re getting from all kinds of different people…. We’re all thinking about the family and hopefully it turns out OK. I don’t know anything.”
On man falling in area near the seats used by players’ families
“One of the security guards radio’d that nobody (seated in the area) got hurt. But still, they witnessed something that, from what I’m hearing from bits and pieces from other people, wasn’t very pretty. None of our (players’) families got hurt, other than there were some young children up there that had to see some stuff that was not real nice.”
**MATT WISLER
On bouncing back from some bad starts in August to have a strong one against the Yankees
“I felt good out there tonight. The biggest thing I still need to work on is getting the ball down in the zone. A couple of balls were up in the zone today, cost me in the seventh inning. Give credit to their guys, their pitcher went out there and threw very well today.”
On facing Yankees in front of nearly 50,000 people, extra adrenaline for you?
“Yeah, that’s probably the biggest crowd I’ve pitched in front of all year. Really great atmosphere tonight, great fan support tonight. Knowing I’m facing the Yankees for the first time, it was pretty cool. Especially a lineup like theirs, with eight lefties. That’s been my Achilles heel all my career is facing lefties. So to go up there and have that many lefties and do what I did, I’m pretty happy with it.”
On the wild pitch in the first inning
“No miscommunication (between him and Bethancourt), I think it probably just took a weird hop. Nothing you can do about that. It just kind of spiked. It was a slider, I threw it in their and it kicked up off him. Not much you can do there.”
What he can improve upon
“However many walks I had (four) is terrible. But it’s a step in the right direction. I’ll take this and hopefully finish strong in the month of September.”
On the fan that fell (this interview conducted before Braves found out man died)
“That’s terrible. Huge condolences out to that family. You never want to hear something like that. We were all in dugout paying more attention to that than the game when it first happened. That’s terribly sad to hear. We really hope for the best for that family. That’s sad to see something tragic like that happen at a game.”
**CHRISTIAN BETHANCOURT
On Wisler’s improvement over previous August starts
“He did a great job. Except for the first inning, after they got the leadoff double. He battled, and he was great tonight.”
On the wild pitch that was spiked
“I was ready to block the ball. It just happened that the ball hit my arm and just went away. I mean, you can’t do anything about it. It would be different if I just not tried to block the ball or not tried to stop it. But I think I was there. Unfortunately they scored a run on that. But other than that, I think he was great tonight.”
On the fan who fell from upper deck
“I have no idea. I just heard a lot of noises when Alex Rodriguez was coming up to hit, and then all of a sudden I walked up to Marksberry to tell him how we were going to pitch (Rodriguez), and when I was walking back, I mean, I saw – it was right in front of me. I saw a bunch of people looking over there. I really didn’t know what was going on until after the game.”
