CINCINNATI — Braves quotes from Aaron Harang, Freddie Freeman, Evan Gattis, Tommy La Stella and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Reds.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On the 9th inning rally that fell short
“You had the right guys at the plate. Absolutely had the right guys at the plate. I think Gosselin gave us one hell of an at-bat right there to get those guys to the plate, and you feel good (about chances), the way Justin is swinging the bat and Freeman is swinging the bat, that something good was going to happen there. I didn’t feel like we lost the game, I felt like we just ran out of outs.
“But they added on a couple of runs. We didn’t turn the double play, that was an add-on run for them. Then the solo home run by Frazier – those add-on runs late in the game, those are big runs there at the end.”
On Harang’s rough inning and failure to cover first base on infield hit behind the base
“I think he thought that the ball was foul. He broke (toward the base) right away and kind of stopped, and it was a fair ball. That one inning was big. Give up three runs there.”
On game having a way of making you pay for mistakes, like when Harang stopped
“That’s what I’m thinking – I really haven’t spoke to him about it, but it looked like he broke right away and then stopped, thinking the ball was foul. Next thing you know it’s fair. It was fair, and we couldn’t get out of that jam.”
Disappointing series after winning the first two?
“Well, it’s hard in a four-game series to sweep or even win three out of four. But I will tell you this, I liked the way we battled back today after losing 1-nothing yesterday. I don’t think we got our first run until the fifth inning, if I’m not mistaken, maybe even the sixth inning (actually, the seventh). And we came back and had the bases loaded with the hottest hitter in baseball at the plate. You kind of feel good about your club the way you battled back.”
Until that point, what kept you guys from having the offense going the way it had been before the weekend?
“Pretty good pitching, I would think. They made some good pitches when they had to, and some of the guys hit the ball right at people.”
It’s not like Harang to make mistakes, whether they be mental, physical or whatever
“Well, we just talked about it a little. I haven’t really talked to him about it, but it seemed to me, without asking him, that he broke to the bag right away and thought it was foul and kind of stopped, and all of a sudden the ball’s fair. And he did a nice job only giving up three runs in that inning; it could have been a lot worse than that. But those (things) are the stuff that happens some games.”
**AARON HARANG
On things coming unraveled in the three-run fourth inning, not covering first base on the infield hit
“Yeah, and something as small as covering first, that I’ve done thousands of times in my career, and one time you don’t do it and things come unraveled. I thought when Jay (Bruce) hit that ball, the way Fredi was going after it, I just assumed it was foul, so I kind of broke down, and by the time I get started again I’m not going to beat him to first.
“I take blame for the whole thing. Because if I make that, cover first like I routinely do, he flies out to right, inning’s over, no run scores. It’s a tough one to swallow. Especially when we’ve been playing so well. To go out and end up losing on one mental error in the game, and have it cost you the victory, it really stinks.”
How’d you feel about your stuff today otherwise?
“I felt good. I felt like I was making some good pitches and really keeping them off balance. It just, after that mental mistake, they took advantage of it, got a couple of base hits. The guys battled and we were right there until the end. Definitely made it a real nail-biter. That mental mistake, it’s frustrating to me because it’s something I normally don’t even break down (stop) on foul balls most of the time, so it’s frustrating for myself for that to happen, and it ended up costing us this game. We should have got a victory out of that. My mental lapse just cost us.”
**TOMMY LA STELLA
Can you take any positives from rallying late, making it close, or is it just tough?
“Obviously it’s a tough way to lose, but definitely you take positives from that. They had a good arm out there in Broxton, and we were able to string together some good at-bats, got two-strike hitting, and Gosselin’s at-bat was outstanding obviously and he was able to reach base and get it to Freddie, Freddie reached and then Justin put up a good at-bat as well, took a couple of great swings and came a couple of centimeters away from winning that game for us.”
On Alfredo Simon
“He’s got good stuff. Any time you’ve got a power pitcher like that who’s able to throw the ball mid-90s and has got some sink on his two-seam and got a good split to lefties and the curveball/cutter to righties. He mixed it up pretty well today, kept us off balance and he was effective.”
**EVAN GATTIS
Does ninth inning give you a little better feeling leaving here, or is it still just rough losing these two?
“It’s still rough, but it’s always good to fight back. I don’t feel like we’re a team that gives up. Nobody goes up there trying to make an out.”
On Harang’s mistake not covering first base
“It proved to be costly, but we could have turned a double play, little things could have made it go away.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On taking positives at least from the ninth-inning rally
“We did fight. We had the right guys at the plate at the right time. Justin was hot; we had the right guy at the right time. Hit the ball hard, just didn’t get the run.”
On team having some earlier scoring opportunities that came back to haunt
“Yeah, I grounded into a double play early in the game. We just had opportunities today. Take that as a positive, in a long 17-game stretch we had right there. Luckily we get a day off tomorrow, and rest up and go at them again Tuesday.”
On offensive struggles past few days, after doing so well in that for a week or two
“We fought all game. We put together nine or 10 hits. Just one of those days, the last inning we couldn’t get the big hit. Can’t get on us – the last week we’ve been pretty good getting hits, getting runners in scoring position and getting them in. We’re not going to win every game, but we did put up a fight today.”
