Braves quotes from Fredi Gonzalez, Julio Teheran and Freddie Freeman after Sunday’s 20-6 loss to the Yankees.
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On the 20-6 loss and series sweep by Yankees
“They just kicked our butts. The whole series, they came out swinging the bats well and pitched well. Pretty evident what that lineup is capable of doing, and they showed it today.”
There’s struggling and there’s going through game like this. How do you bounce back?
“That’s the beauty of baseball, we get to come back tomorrow and play. One-zero, 20-6, it’s still a loss in my book, so you’ve got to try and put it behind you as much as you can. But this is a loss that kind of hurts a little bit more. You don’t want to go out there and get beat like we did today. But we’ve got to come back tomorrow and hopefully play better tomorrow.”
Not used to seeing that from Teheran at home?
“He just made a couple of mistakes. I think that’s what’s been going on pretty much all season for all of us, we haven’t been able to click on all cylinders. He was out there battling, got us to the fifth inning. But hopefully he can go out and have a better game next time.”
What’s toughest part about a game like this?
“It’s hard to put a finger on it. As a baseball player, as a competitor, you never want to be part of a game like this — unless you’re on the other side. But it’s something that, you never want this to happen again, so you’ve got to go out there and play, and hopefully contribute as much as you possibly can for it not to happen again. Today’s over with, hopefully we can come back tomorrow and play a better game.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
Was this one of the toughest games or experiences you’ve endured?
“I think the whole series was tough. These guys swing the bats really well, and other than yesterday — Wisler pitched really good – today we didn’t pitch at all, and we gave up some serious, big numbers. But it’s over with. You can’t do anything about it anymore. Get ready for the Marlins, hopefully finish strong on this homestand. But it was a tough series.”
On Teheran at home being one thing you could pretty much count on, but not today
“He’s rattled off some pretty good games, and today just … I think it was a residue of the first couple games of the series, where they come in here not swinging the bats real well, then they score a lot of runs the first night and it gave them some confidence that I think carried over to the whole series.”
On your guys fighting back to get within three, then giving up nine-run inning
“It’s hard. It really is hard. We get back within three runs and think we’ve got a chance, then they put up a big number. It’s hard. It’s deflating, demoralizing, but you know what? These guys have done it for 100 and something games, and they’ll finish the same way as we started — keep grinding, keep fighting, and somehow we’ll figure out how that bullpen shakes out.”
Can you recall a team scoring as many runs as the Yankees did with two outs in the series?
“No, I don’t. I don’t remember any of … we haven’t had one of these series in a long time. It’s just tough. But we’ve got to shake it off and be ready to play tomorrow.”
Did you know with Brigham you were going to have to leave him out there, let him get through whatever came?
“Yeah, absolutely. And he battled. He gave us everything he had. But yeah, you get to a certain point – you don’t want to throw another position player out there (to pitch). We didn’t really even want to throw Jackson out there (in the ninth), but you get in a situation where, does Jackson throw two days in a row or do you run Brigham out there for a third inning where he has a possibility of getting hurt, even though he’s a starter (in the minors).”
**JULIO TEHERAN
On giving up three multi-run homers with two outs
“I think those were the only mistakes that I made. Other than that…we were facing a really good team and they have really good hitters.”
On Yankees taking walks, making him pay for those walks
“Yeah, that’s the kind of team they are, they make you pitch and they work counts. I mean, I was trying to throw my game, but whenever you face a team like that it’s, like, kind of a different game.”
Hard to leave the game in the fifth inning, particularly given the state of the bullpen?
“Yeah, it is hard. As a starter you want to pitch as long as you can, especially knowing the bullpen has been throwing a lot. I wanted to stay longer in the game. That’s why I battled, even though I gave up seven runs, to give the bullpen a chance to rest.”
On the Yankees scoring most of their runs with two outs, including three two-out homers off Teheran
“Yeah, it’s strange, whenever we got two outs that’s when they scored runs. Just trying to forget that and come back tomorrow and see what we can do to win some more games.”
