ARLINGTON, Texas — Braves quotes from Mike Minor, Freddie Freeman, David Hale and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Sunday’s 10-3 loss to the Rangers.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On fifth-inning meltdown
“We had two outs, nobody on. Just couldn’t get that third out, and they dropped a six-spot. We’re not playing good baseball. It’s not the way we’re used to playing. It’s a shame, we played 140-something games and then now in the last couple of weeks we’re not playing good baseball.
“I thought early on in the game we had some pretty good patience at the plate against Lewis. We didn’t get anything out of it, hit the ball hard a couple of times. Mikey kept us in the ballgame right there, and then with two outs and nobody on the in the fifth, they scored six runs. We couldn’t get that third out and get off the field.”
On Minor, was he just a little off?
"He's rattled off five or six good starts. Today was one of those starts he maybe just left the ball out over the plate. A lot of pitches in five innings, 107 pitches. He got into some deep counts. But he's been awful good the last five or six starts."
On David Hale’s bad relief appearance
“That’s the way it goes. Two nights ago he gave up a great (appearance) facing Choice, I think we had (runners at) first and second or bases loaded, one of those situations late in the game, and he struck out Choice to end that inning. Today, sinker wasn’t sinking.”
On the 2-7 trip, losing all three series
“Not a real good feeling. It’s not the way we play baseball. You see one, two good at-bats here and there, but up and down the line we haven’t really put anything together. Our pitching staff – if we don’t pitch, we may not even win a game (on the trip). Today we didn’t pitch, but the last two nights we pitched and lost one-run games.”
How disappointed that this is the time of year you’re not playing good ball?
“It happens. Obviously when it happens in April or May, you’re not too worried about it. But the second week of September, when there’s no more games, or the games are running out, you start worrying about it. So we’ve got to step it up.”
**MIKE MINOR
Seems like you’re line is going to look worse than you actually pitched?
“No, I threw pretty bad. The sinkers I usually throw were off today. Every batter was 1-0, 2-0. I was working behind against every batter. My curveball wasn’t as sharp, and the good ones I didn’t throw they fouled it off and made me throw another one. That’s all we’ve been throwing a lot lately is the sinkers and curveballs, and then today later on we threw a couple of more change-ups, but I felt like it was almost too late, just because I couldn’t get strike 1.”
Frustrating that you couldn’t come out and be at your best for this game?
“Yeah, because we needed it. So yeah, it’s pretty frustrating to go out there and feel like the whole game, I was frustrated just from every batter coming up there, not getting strike 1, not working ahead. Even though the first couple of innings it was only a couple of runs, I knew that I needed to go six or seven and it wasn’t going to happen with me getting behind every batter.”
What was so tough about that third out in the fifth inning?
“They were hitting the ball. David Hale came in there and tried to relieve me, and that’s a good hitting team.”
Surprised how things went today, considering how well you had pitched in your past several starts?
“No, everybody has their bad days. It just sucks that it happened today for me.”
Disappointing the way the team played as a whole on the trip?
“Yeah, it’s disappointing, but I still feel like we’re a good team, like we’re going to bounce back. There’s still some games left and we’re not out of it. I know everybody (on the team) thinks the same way. That we can come back from this. It just sucks that we just got swept.”
**DAVID HALE
On what went wrong in the fifth (four straight hits allowed by him before getting an out).
“I just wasn’t really executing my pitches, I guess. A couple of them I did, and they just put good swings on them. Strung together four straight hits. I mean, it’s going to happen. Unfortunately it happened then, because I would’ve liked to have gotten Mike out of that inning and kept the game close. I’ve avoided a bad one for a while, and unfortunately it came there.”
Frustrating the way teams’ played lately?
“We’re just real streaky. It does get a little frustrating sometimes.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On coming week
“Obviously we’ve got a tough series against the Nationals, who going to try and want to clinch on our field. We’ve got to go up against three tough pitchers. But anytime going home, hopefully that can give us a little bit of energy and hopefully start a nice little winning streak.”
Faced a tough pitcher in Derek Holland on Saturday. What did you think of Colby Lewis on Sunday?
“You know, I really don’t know. I guess he was moving (the ball) in and out. He gave us pitches to hit and we were just missing balls. Justin just barely missed a two-run homer in the first. We had our opportunities. We hit balls hard one through nine innings. It’s just one of those things, it seemed like they were in the right place. At least one of the balls fell in with Terdo getting a two-run double. Nice to see him get a hit right there.
“But I felt like we had pitches to hit all day and we just didn’t hit it today.”
On Mike Minor
“He came out of the game and had only given up two or three runs. I still think he pitched well. It’s tough to pitch well when you have to make a perfect pitch, when as an offense we’re not scoring any runs. It puts a lot of pressure on the pitchers, and that’s not something you want to do every single day. Our pitchers have to pitch a perfect game pretty much right now. Hopefully us going home, maybe we’ll get some energy and be able to score some runs at home.”
How do you go home from this trip, maybe on the plane it’ll settle in that, damn, we just lost seven of nine games?
“If it hasn’t hit you already, then I don’t know what…. I mean, we just went 2-7 on the road trip. We needed to win these last three games. That’s what we had to do. We just put ourselves in a very, very tough spot. Now we have 13 games left and we’re four back, and we’ve got to go through one of the better teams in the National League here in the next three games (Washington). Luckily we get to play the team (Pittsburgh) that’s in the second place wild card, hopefully we can still be in position to have a shot at them when we play them four games next week.”
