SAN DIEGO — Braves quotes from Evan Gattis, Freddie Freeman, David Hale, Gerald Laird, Aaron Harang and Fredi Gonzalez after Sunday’s 10-inning loss to the Padres.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Heyward
“Heyward since he got back the last couple of days has given us some great at-bats, driven in some big runs.”
On the poor offense, mistakes
“When you’re not scoring runs, everything gets exposed a little bit. And we had some opportunities. We had a baserunning mistake in the seventh inning (Gattis not scoring on double), and it just compounds it. Where you go out today and score seven or eight, those mistakes you can cover up. But when you’re not scoring runs every little mistake or every time you don’t get a run in when you have to, that’s big.”
On loading bases and not scoring again
“Second day in a row. And you feel like, OK, we’ve got some good at-bats coming, we’ve got the bases loaded. And didn’t get anything for it, again. What you’re looking for is just a ball to get through the infield, a pop-up, a wild pitch, anything. We’re not getting any of that stuff right now.”
On Gattis not scoring from second on Johnson double
“If you watch this game long enough, the baserunning mistakes are usually at second base. For whatever reason, the guy at second base always has the worse reads that you can have. I didn’t even talk to Gattis about it because I knew exactly what happened. He thought it was going to be caught, and got too far back towards the bag and then he can’t score. Those are the things that I was talking about, little mistakes that get compounded when you’re not scoring runs.”
On Harang
“Gave us everything he had, really. Gave us 110-plus pitches, gave up two runs, gave us an opportunity to win the game. We just didn’t push the run across.”
On Walden not entering game
“Walden was going to close the game for us, because we weren’t going to use Kimbrel and Carpenter had pitched back-to-back multiple innings.”
On the 0-6 trip so far
“You always want to win series and we haven’t won a series in the last two. Go to Seattle, got a big off day tomorrow which is probably about as good as it can come, the off day tomorrow. And see if we can get the offense going in Seattle.”
What concerns you most in this stretch?
“We’ve faced some tough pitching and our offense has got to pick up the pitching a little bit, our pitching. We’ve faced some tough pitching and didn’t get anything going.”
**GERALD LAIRD
On things not going Braves’ way
“Sometimes you’ve got to create your own luck, though. We’re getting opportunities to score runs and we’re not getting it done. I mean, that’s the bottom line, we’ve got to play better. This is a big stretch for us right here. It isn’t going to get any easier. We’ve got Seattle and then we go home against three tough teams. I mean, when we get opportunities to score we’ve got to take advantage of it, and right now we’re not doing that.”
Anything concern you most during this stretch?
“Just not being able to get guys home from third when you should. We’ve had opportunities to take the lead and get the ball handed over to our main bullpen guys, and we just haven’t been able to get it done. It’s not lack of effort, it’s just, I know guys are trying, maybe pressing to do a little bit too much. But the bottom line is, we’ve got to play better or we could fall out of this thing real quick.”
“It’s good going into an off day, take a step away from the game, take a deep breath. We’ve got young guys and just relax a little bit, and then come into Seattle and get ready to play a new series, because we’ve got to get it going.”
“We’ve got so many opportunities to take the lead and blow games open, and we’re not doing it. We’re putting ourselves in good situations to score runs, we’re just not getting that big hit when we need to. Like we always keep saying, every guy in here knows it, the good teams win those games. And we know we’re a good team, but we’ve got to get over that hump.”
On situational hitting, something you guys talk about behind closed doors?
“It’s not lack of effort or trying, it’s just a matter of bearing down and getting it done. The good teams do. When you get opportunities to score and beat teams that are really not in it, teams that you should beat, you get it done. And right now we’re not, and everyone on this team knows that and we’ve talked about it.
“Like I said, we’ve just got to go into this off day, take a step away, regroup, gather yourself and enjoy the off day, but when it comes Tuesday, we’ve got to bring it because it ain’t going to get any easier with Felix (Hernandez) on the mound.”
On Hale in 10th
“He threw the ball good. He made the great play, did a good job getting the lede runner and threw to first. For a second I thought we were going to get out of it. That ball (to Cabrera) just leaked away. We tried to go four-seam cutter in on his hands and it just leaked to the middle of the plate and he put a good swing on it.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On getting swept, the loss and facing Padres’ Tyson Ross on Sunday
“This is a tough one. Obviously he’s an All-Star, we knew this one today was going to be a battle. But we needed to win the first couple of games (in the series). It’s a tough one to swallow, especially when you play 17 games in a row, to have it end with six losses in a row is definitely tough.
“We’ve got to take tomorrow, regroup, get some rest, and take it to them in Seattle. We’ve just got to turn this thing around. We can’t keep saying we’ll get them tomorrow, we’ll get them tomorrow. It has to be tomorrow, meaning Tuesday. We’ve just to relax and regroup. We’re not out of this thing, we’re only 3 ½ back. But we’ve got to get it going soon, though.”
On the missed scoring opportunities
“Yeah, but you can take a positive out of it – we’re getting opportunities. Obviously we’re not getting the big hit yet, but we’re getting the opportunities. If we keep getting those opportunities, somebody’s going to get the hit. Once we get one, like I always say, once we get one we’ll get rolling and we’ll be alright.”
Do the missed scoring opportunities concern you the most about this team right now?
“I don’t think anything concerns me. The last six games we didn’t score many runs. I know what this team’s capable of, I know what this offense is capable of, it’s just getting hits. When we’re in the middle of the lineup getting one hit or zero hits, we can’t keep the line moving and we’re not going to score very many runs. We’ve got to take that upon ourselves. It’s the guys in the middle of the lineup that need to get going. We’ve only got six or seven weeks left, and we’ve got to turn this thing around on Tuesday.”
On Heyward’s impact, back in lineup past two days after missing four
“My goodness, it’s special to watch. He can change a ballgame with one at-bat. Hits a double, next thing you know on a ground ball back to the pitcher he’s going to third, making them throw, and running to tie the ballgame. That’s what he can do, and he’s fun to watch and definitely fun to have him back in the lineup again.”
**DAVID HALE
Pitch come back over the plate to Cabrera?
“A little bit. It was in; I was trying to get it in and it was, he just turned on it, found a hole.”
Lot of pressurized situations in these games lately
“Yeah, but you’ve got to be able to deal with it, so…. That isn’t any excuse. It just happens.”
**AARON HARANG
On losing so many close games lately
“We’ve been battling, we’ve been coming back when we can. I know we had quite a few opportunities to score, they made some good plays and got out of it. We did likewise, too.
“They’re a pesky team over there. I got to play over there, that’s just their philosophy. They’ve got a lot of guys who try to make the starter throw a lot of pitches, raise the pitch count real quick and foul a lot of pitches off, try to keep you from getting in a groove.”
On pitcher Ross getting a two-out RBI single in the second inning
“That’s hitting the ball in the right spot. I was able to get one in off his hands, but he was able to just squeak it up the middle. If he pulls it to the shortstop we’re out of that inning. That kind of stuff happens. He even put some good at-bats up against me. He was making me throw a lot of pitches and fouling some off. Got to give him credit. He was out there battling, too.”
Do the results look worse than it feels like you’ve played in this stretch?
“I think so. We’ve been battling. I mean, we battled in L.A., we battled her. It’s been a lot of grinding. So I think the off day will be good for us, let everybody get refreshed, maybe get away from baseball a little bit, get you mind cleared up, then be ready to go again Tuesday.”
“We played the Dodgers tough. We knew going in that’s a potential playoff preview right there. These guys (Padres) played us tough. That’s what they do. They get to this point in the season knowing that they’re pretty much out of contention, and they’re over there just trying to spoil everybody else’s thing. I’ve been there. It was like that when I was with the Reds for a number of years. I did that over there (with the Padres). You get to the point in the season where you feel like you possibly can’t come back, and it’s spoiler time. They’re going to play all the first-place teams tough, and they’re going to battle. They’ve got nothing to lose.”
**EVAN GATTIS
On not scoring from second base on double, just a bad read?
“I think I (bleeped) up. Fly ball in the air, once you start seeing the ball and him, and how far the ball is from him … I (bleeped) up. I got a bad read.”
“He still had to get it off the wall (and in). I felt like I could score (going back to tag). It’s a bad read. That’s it.”
