PHILADELPHIA — Braves quotes from Alex Wood, Gerald Laird and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Thursday's 1-0 loss to the Phillies.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wood
“We’ll sit down on the bus and dissect the outing and pick it apart, but he did a terrific job. I know he didn’t want to hang a curveball to Revere; he probably wanted to spike it a little better. But he got it up in the air, up in the strike zone, and he got the best of it.”
On Wood being a groundball-inducing machine most of the day
“He was terrific. If you eliminate that eighth inning, both offensively and pitching-wise, he did a terrific job. Here’s a kid who hasn’t handled the bat much. He gets a chance to help himself by moving the runner over, and (doesn’t) do that. Heyward hits a long fly ball to right field that would have got in a run. But those are the things that we’ve got to keep working with him and get him better at, so he can pitch late in those ballgames like that.”
Was it your hitters or A.J. Burnett pitching well, or both?
“I think A.J. was pretty good. I haven’t seen him pitch in a while, but his fastball had some cut to it, some dive to it. He threw some nice breaking balls.”
**ALEX WOOD
How’d you feel about your performance, other than the final score?
“I felt like I threw the ball well. It definitely sucks that I kind of lost the game for us there in the top of the eighth. Gerald leads off with a double and I can’t get a sac bunt down. You’ve got Jason coming up, he lines one out to right field, and the game should have been 1-nothing going into the bottom of the eighth, and at that point it should have been over. Especially the way I was feeling. And with Craig and Carp and Walden, all those guys in the bullpen.
“It’s just inexcusable. I’ve just got to work from there.”
Any chance the frustration from failed bunt carried over to the bottom of the eighth?
“No, no. No chance. The one mistake I thought I made in the bottom of the eighth was letting myself get so deep in the count with Howard. You can’t walk him. He’s the guy you want to face, lefty-lefty matchup right there. A scrappy guy like Revere, he’s seeing the ball for the fourth time on the day and he’d stung it hard on two of his first ABs; one was a double play, but he still hit it hard. Howard’s been on the bench all day. You’ve got to go right at him. That’s just kind of inexcusable.”
On not bunting much before got to majors, something you just need more work on?
“I mean, the thing is you don’t want to let yourself get to two strikes, especially when you’re bunting. Especially late in the ballgame. I took the first one and he called it a strike, so you’re already in the hole right there. And then if you get to two strikes you’ve got a guy like Bastardo who’s going to spin you a pretty good breaking ball. It’s hard to lay off it.
“It’s one of those things, you’ve just got to keep working and hopefully don’t let it happen again.”
**GERALD LAIRD
On Alex Wood
“He threw the ball really well. Again, like the last couple of times I caught him, he had all three pitches working. He was working both sides of the plate and his curveball was real effective today. If he keeps pitching like he has been, he’s going to definitely help us this year. He looks great.”
On Wood not getting bunt down, the little things matter…
“That’s the thing. I mean, obviously I’ll sit and talk to him on the bus or something, but I know you go up there and are trying, but those are the little things in the game that can contribute to yourself getting a win. It’s one of those things where in the National League you see a lot of pitchers take pride in that, because I mean, all that’s good stuff today. No, it’s not a waste – as a young pitcher you’re like, oh, man, I got the loss – but it’s one of those little things where if you can go up there and get it down you give yourself a chance for a W. Because he definitely pitched well enough to win this ballgame.”
Did A.J. Burnett have his good stuff today?
“You could tell he’s out there with something wrong with him, something’s hurting. He’s battling through some injuries. But that’s what veteran pitchers do. I mean, he had some stuff today that I probably wouldn’t say is his ‘A’ stuff, but he was able to keep us off-balance and he made pitches when he needed to. That’s what great pitchers do. That’s why he’s pitched in this league for a long time.”
