PHILADELPHIA — Braves quotes from Freddie Freeman, Trevor Cahill and Fredi Gonzalez after Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Phillies.
** FREDI GONZALEZ
On Braves making it interesting in ninth inning
“One thing about our club, you may beat us, but when the other team goes back to the locker room, they know, ‘were in for a fight.’ These guys (Braves), 27 outs. They don’t give outs away. We came up a little short. That add-on run in the seventh – in this ballpark, one run is easy to get back. That hurt a little bit, for them to get a two-run lead. But I liked the way our guys battled, every single guy in the lineup.”
On Cahill’s performance
“I thought Cahill did OK. He got the change-up up in the strike zone to Ryan Howard, after getting ahead 0-2. Ryan didn’t chase those change-ups in the dirt, and he missed up over the plate just a little too much, and with him he’s so strong, he’s going to hit it out of the ballpark and they got three runs. But we came right back and tied the game. And I thought our bullpen did a nice job holding them right there.”
On Freeman’s three errors in the series, not like him
“No, that’s not. He’s a pretty sure-handed guy. The one today, it was a chopper and it’s tough with a left-handed guy covering the bag. If you don’t lead him just enough it’s going to be tough for him to make an adjustment, and I think that’s just what happened. You’ve got a speedy guy at second, a speedy guy running (to first), there’s really no margin for error. We just didn’t make a play, we probably make it 100 out of 100 times, but we didn’t make it today. That was the add-on run.”
On Cahill, left some pitches up but did you think his stuff was any better than last time out?
“I thought so. Other than one pitch to Howard, shoot, he gives up one run. But I thought it was better. This was his third start for us, and he made some pitches. We (intentionally walked) Utley to get Francoeur, and he grounded out to end the inning. I thought him getting six (innings) and getting his pitch count up close to 90, was good.”
On the Markakis strikeout, did you think ball was in the dirt?
“That’s one of the toughest calls. I can’t see it, it’s so quick and happens so fast, I don’t think even the home-plate umpire can see it. I think they go by experience and the way it sounds, the way it sounds with the catcher. I came in here and looked at it on the videotape and you really can’t tell, whether they caught it or didn’t catch it. I was trying to do everything I can, in my power, that’s why we checked the ball to see if maybe it had a scuff mark from hitting the ground. I guess it didn’t, because he threw it right back to him.
“Nevertheless, we had some opportunities, opportunities throughout the course of the game and even in the ninth. We bring Callaspo off the bench and he hits a home run, and we’ve got (runners on) first and second with Kelly Johnson hitting the ball to (deep left). I thought for a second, I didn’t know if it was going to be out, but I thought it was going to be off the wall a little bit. And here we go.”
On the Braves’ errors in the past two series
“I don’t know if it was from the cold and guys standing around out there, but we’re better than that. And we’ll fix it.”
**TREVOR CAHILL
On his performance
“I feel like I didn’t command the ball as well as I could have. Bet (Bethancourt) called a good game. In the first inning, I’ve had success against Howard with the change-up, and I just left it up, middle-up.”
Do you see this as progress today?
“I mean, any time you lose a ballgame it’s tough. It’s nice to be able to go out there and at least go six innings and not feel like you’re a burden on the bullpen. That was the best part about it is that I was able to get up six times. That one pitch in the first is going to hurt me, but I was able to kind of bounce back after that.”
On giving up three runs in first after being staked to 2-0 lead
“As a pitcher, sometimes I think, especially in the first, when they score a couple of runs (for you), you try too hard because you want to have that shutdown inning and just get (your team) right back in there. Maybe sometimes you can relax a little bit; I think I just tried too hard to se the tone early and go out there. I think I was overthrowing a little bit in the first.”
Do you feel like working with Roger, you guys have made some progress?
“It’s two outings before this one. The first one obviously he’s just going to watch me. I started working on things a little bit before this last one, but it’s tough, because the trade (in the last week of spring training) was so late that Roger didn’t see me. So he kind of just needed to see how I go about things. I think as we spend more time together we’ll be able to communicate a little bit better.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
Thoughts coming away from this loss and the series defeat
“I think just missed opportunities. We had some runners on base and just didn’t get them all in. There’s been a lot of errors this road trip and I think we know we have to play better baseball starting tomorrow.”
On snapping 1-for-19 stretch with a couple of doubles, that feel like it may have gotten you out of offensive funk?
“Hopefully. It’s only one game, but hopefully it’s the start of something good. It’s nice to get some pitches out over and elevate it to left field. Hopefully that’s a start.”
Was that a difficult play, the toss to first to Ian Thomas covering on the run?
“No, it’s just a bad throw.”
On hitting the other way to left field, usually a good sign for him
“Usually it is. All I can do is keep going up there and trying to get a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it. Obviously the last 20 at-bats (before the doubles) hadn’t gone the way I wanted them to. Hopefully this is a start. Hopefully I can get some pitches out over (the plate) and make some good contact in the next series, and hits will stop falling.”
On what he’d do differently on the error
“Looking at the replay, it’s an easy toss, or I could just let (second baseman) Jace (Peterson) get it, you know? Just a bonehead move again.”
