Braves quotes after Sunday’s 10-2 loss to Mets

“It’s tough because we haven’t been playing very good lately. As a pitcher, you know, we have our confidence up, but at the same time you have to, like, throw a complete-game shutout or something like that to get a win. I mean, it’s tough. Very tough.”

Ever experience anything like this collapse in your career?

“Not at all. In my whole career, I’ve never been in this position before.”

Any way you could have predicted this collapse, given how close you were to Nats at end of July?

“I mean, seriously I don’t know what to tell you. From a pitching standpoint, we do our job. I mean, we don’t score any runs. I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t know.”

Does it weigh on you as a pitcher when team doesn’t score? We ask all the time and most of the time pitchers insist it doesn’t

“Of course. Of course you’ve got that on your mind. If you are a starting pitcher you’re going to have that on your mind every time when you see teams like this and we don’t score any runs. I mean, it’s tough for us because you know when we’re playing like this, you give up two runs, three runs, you know it’s going to be a tough game. It’s hard.”

On getting his 1,500th strikeout

“We got the loss anyway. You enjoy it for a second, and then we’re back to reality and we lose again. It’s not worth it.”

**FREDI GONZALEZ

On deGrom

“He pitched real well. He’s got an above-average fastball and his secondary pitches are pretty good. We had a chance; we got to him in the fifth inning in a 4-nothing (actually 5-0) game and scored a couple more runs and it might be a different ballgame.”

On Mets hitters aggressive vs. Santana

“You look at the advance scouting reports on him, he’s going to be around the plate. He’s going to be aggressive, and I’m sure the other teams know that. But other than the solo home run to Tejada, I thought he kept us in the game, he really did keep us in the game. But today we didn’t play good baseball. Today we got officially eliminated from the wild card spot, and that hurts. We’ve got four games against the Pirates, and those are meaningful games for the Pirates. We need to come out and battle and give the teams that are behind them – I think the Brewers and them are still fighting for it – give the Brewers an opportunity for them to get in.”

On striking out 10 times in first five innings, one of the failings of this team

“That’s been our M.O. for a couple of years, we struck out a lot. And today we ran across a strikeout pitcher. I think his last outing he struck out the first eight hitters he faced against the Marlins. And today he had enough stuff to be able to do that again. We battled and had an opportunity to chase him out in the fifth inning, and he made some pitches.”

Anything that can explain how things have gone for this team in September?

“I can’t, and I won’t even try right now. That’s one of those things, you sit in the offseason and you reflect and try to figure out what went wrong and what you would have done differently. We’ve still got seven games and we’ve got to worry about those seven games now.”

Is it important to play these last seven games hard, not just for Brewers, Pirates and baseball, but from a pride standpoint?

“Yeah, we’ve got some individual stuff that could be good. I know that Justin Upton wants to get to 100 RBIs, and we need to get some people on base to where he can be able to reach that goal. There’s other individual stuff, maybe a couple of starters want to get some wins. So yeah, we need to have some pride. But not only that, we play the game to win. Now we’re not in the playoffs, we can still do some damage, we can still make some headlines. And this is maybe our playoffs, these next four games. Come out tomorrow and show up and do something.”

**CHRIS JOHNSON

Does the word "elimination" kind of hit home with the team?

“We don’t really talk about it. We just keep coming in, trying to work hard and finish out the season as best we can. That’s all you\ can really do. We can’t really worry about elimination or things like that if we’re not winning ballgames. It’s pointless. So we’ve just got to come in, work hard and try to get better in these last (seven) games and go from there.”

Could you have imagined a month ago that these games vs. Pittsburgh would be so unimportant?

“We obviously were shooting for a little better result and shooting for an interesting series against them. But we’ll give them all we’ve got. We’ll play hard and continue to work hard, and that’s all we can do.”

Since of responsibility to Brewers, the game, the NL, to go at it hard against the Pirates?

“I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s just out of respect for our organization, ourselves, the name on the back of your jersey (and) the front of your jersey, go out there and play hard, try to get a win, no matter who’s out there. Everybody in the league is still playing for something, and we’ll give it all we’ve got and try to get a win every game.”

If there was any pressure last couple of weeks, does that go away now?

“I don’t think so. We’re still struggling. I think a lot of guys want to turn this thing around and still play good baseball the next seven games. I don’t think any of us were really worried about that pressure, of the wild-card or the division or anything like that. I think we just try and focus on playing better and do what we can to get better, and go from there.”

Does a team’s play at times like this show what kind of pride it has?

“Yeah, I think we’ve done a good job, I think guys are still coming in every day and working hard and still trying to get better. I mean, I don’t see too many guys in here just folding and going out there and going through the motions. I think guys are still trying to go as hard as they can and still trying to get better.”

**JASON HEYARD

“For me, certain things stay in the clubhouse. We come in every day and work hard and grind as players. Coaches do as well. So, that’s that. Some things don’t work out the way you planned. You play the cards you’re dealt, and we came in every day, I feel like, and tried to get some things done.”