DENVER — Quotes from Gerald Laird, David Carpenter, Chris Johnson, Ervin Santana, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez and Rockies outfielders Corey Dickerson and Michael Cuddyer after Thursday's 10-3 loss to the Rockies.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Santana
“He kept us in the game. He gave up a two-run homer to Charlie and then a solo to Morneau, but kept us in the game. Three runs in this ballpark, or any ballpark, you can come back from. In the seventh inning there it just got a little out of hand. We got second and third and they put a big five-spot in that inning.
“We came back and battled, got a couple of runs, got some people on base, and you feel like we could come back.”
How troublesome is the lack of offense past two days given the ballpark and opposing pitchers?
“Well, that’s the way we are. That’s our club sometimes. We can look really good offensively and sometimes we have a tough time keeping the line moving.”
Walden’s ineffectiveness related to the leg or just rust?
“I’m not sure. That’s why we ran him back out there today, just to get him some more work. We need to figure it out, because that’s a big part of our bullpen.”
Is Laird OK?
“Yeah, he’s OK. Bubba (trainer Jeff Porter) just came in a little while ago and told me that they did all the concussion tests and stuff like that and the doctor cleared him to fly to fly back with us. I’m sure he’s going to be a little sore. I think Dickerson’s backswing got him more in the jaw than it did the head, so I think we might have dodged a bullet there.”
Your take on the Carpenter incident and ejections of him and Weiss?
“I can understand Walt getting upset. We hit Rutledge in the head yesterday, the ball got away and hit him in the head. And a couple of games before that I think we threw the ball in on… We tried to throw the ball in on Dickerson; that’s where we want to get him out. And, you know, I can understand how he got upset. I don’t blame him one bit. I don’t think it was on purpose with Carpenter. I mean, the only one who knows that is Carp, but I don’t think it was on purpose.
“But I understand why he’s upset. And you know what? It’s baseball. They got Gattis in the ninth inning and Gattis went down to first base. We knew that something like that could happen, and it happened. And I’m proud of the way Gattis handled the situation.”
On splitting series against Rockies, who had lost 11 of 12 before Wednesday
“It feels OK. We would’ve wanted to win the series. We had a chance to win the series in Arizona and we lost in the ninth inning. Let’s get back home and get some home cooking, maybe get some stuff going.”
**GERALD LAIRD
On how he feels after being hit in jaw/facemask by backswing, and foul tip couple of pitches before that
“I feel alright. The first one got me alright, then just the barrel (of the bat) kind of knocked my mask off and got me right on the side of the jaw. I just felt a little dazed when I went down, seeing some stars. I just wanted to make sure I gathered myself. I told Bubba I was starting to feel alright, but they just wanted to get me out of there after those two blows to the head. But right now I feel OK.”
“The second one got me pretty good. That’s the one I felt the most. The barrel came through my mask and got me on the chin. My jaw was kind of sore after that and I was trying to get my vision back. But other than that, now I feel OK. The doc talked to me and saw me and asked me some questions, and everything went alright. They just got me out of there to make sure everything was OK.”
Did it knock you out?
“No, it didn’t knock me out. When I went down, the first time I opened my eyes I was seeing a little bit of stars and a little fogginess, and I just stayed down until Bubba (trainer Jeff Porter) let me kind of gather myself a little bit, and I started blinking and feeling a little bit better.
“Bubba said that’s two times in three pitches, we’re going to get you out of there.”
Dickerson say anything to you?
“I don’t know. As soon as I got hit I went down and Bubba was out there and I didn’t see too much. But I’m sure none of that stuff is intentional. It’s one of those things where you foul a pitch off and it just caught me in the right spot. I mean, I have no hard feelings toward him.”
So you’d say that’s something that doesn’t warrant retaliation?
“That’s not my call. It’s one of those things that honestly, I don’t think it’s intentional when a lefty goes up there and swings and misses, some guys have those long backswings. It’s not really our job to look out for them. Just don’t get caught by them. It’s one of those pitches, it’s a slider down and in and I’m kind of close to him and I just tried to catch the ball and he swung and fouled it off and came through on his follow and just happened to hit me in the right spot. But like I said, I don’t think anything like that is intentional.”
** DAVID CARPENTER
On hitting Dickerson with the pitch
“The other day (David) Hale through a slider out over the plate, he took a fairly healthy hack at it and hit it to Tommy (La Stella). If you look at the at-bats he’s had the whole series, when balls have been out over the plate he’s hammered them pretty good. So we’re going to try to pound him in there. He took a decent hack at the one fastball I threw in there, cut in on him a little bit. I threw a slider, left it out a little bit and he fouled it off. Just tried to run another fastball in, ended up cutting on me and caught him.”
On what ensued
“Dickerson was kind of looking at me and I said, you just got hit, go to first base. That’s all there is to it. Just go on to the next batter. I don’t know. I didn’t even hear what (Weiss) was saying. I had nothing to say to him.”
Were you surprised by everything that ensued after you hit him?
“Yeah. I was surprised at getting tossed out of the game there. I was just preparing for the next hitter, and the next thing you know I’m getting asked to leave the field. But I guess it’s just how the game goes. You can’t let a hitter take away part of the plate. We’ve got to establish in. Didn’t do a very good job. I tried to do it and the ball cut on me.”
**B.J. UPTON
On offensive woes past two games
“That’s baseball. That’s kind of the way it goes, man…. (not getting results but) I like what we’re doing at the plate. We’ve got some guys battling. Just got to keep grinding. When you play so many games, can’t dwell on two. But I think all in all, we’re in a good spot. We’ve got a good group of guys. We can swing the bat, so we’ll be fine.”
On Chacin, what was he doing?
“I don’t really know. Mixed pitches, I guess. Couldn’t tell you. I mean, he pitched to the corners, kept his breaking ball down. When you’ve got that going, it’s kind of tough. He threw some good breaking pitches down in the zone.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On having the offensive outburst Tuesday, then almost nothing the next two days
“That’s how the big leagues work sometimes. Their pitchers did a good job of shutting us down. The kid yesterday, the lefty, did really well. And Chacin came out today and threw the ball well, hit his spots, kept us off balance. We’ve just got to try to find it again.”
“I couldn’t have told you what Chacin’s ERA was before the game. The rookie (Metzak) was tough because we’d never seen him. Not taking anything away from him; he did really well, spotting the ball where he wanted to throw it, and he’s got good stuff. He throws hard, good slider. And then Chacin kept us off balance today. My first at-bat he threw me some changeups, and then my second at-bats he threw some sliders. I was able to work a walk by third at-bat, but I think he just did a good job mixing up his stuff and keeping us off-balance.”
Can this team turn this around easily with a few strong offensive games?
“It won’t be easy; nothing in this game is easy. So it’s going to take some work. It’ll take some focus, and we’ve just got to buckle down and try to get it back. We’re a confident group, we know we’re going to break out at some point. We’ve just got to get it going.”
On what Walk Weiss said when he came on the field yelling after Carpenter hit Dickerson
“I think he was a little upset that we hit Rutledge in the head the other day (Wednesday) with the 0-2 pitch. Coming from an offensive standpoint, I know that’s not something you like when it’s 0-2 and guys are throwing up and in. He was upset. He was just yelling that, they owe us two. They owe us two. That’s what he kept yelling.
“He doesn’t want his guys getting hit and getting hurt and stuff like that. From what I understand, I talked to Carp and he (said he) was trying to go in. It just happened to work out really, really bad for us that he hit him. It looked bad.”
**Rockies left fielder COREY DICKERSON
On his backswing hitting Laird, and then getting hit by Carpenter pitcher
“It was a two-strike slider on the backswing that I hit Laird. It was an accident. I think they know that. But I think Carpenter thought it was on purpose and hit me with the next pitch.
“I had two strikes on me. He throws a slider. I hit him on my backswing. It was a complete accident. I mean, I never hit somebody on purpose on the backswing, anyway. I don’t think it was called for at all, but he did it.”
when told Fredi said Carpenter didn’t intentionally hit you?
It was almost behind me. The guy has been in the big leagues a while. It’s pretty hard to miss that far. I’m not the one to say if it was intentional or not, but I felt like it was.”
**Rockies DL’d outfielder MICHAEL CUDDYER
On Carpenter hitting Dickerson
“I think it was one of the worst displays in major league baseball that I’ve ever seen. It was just total unprofessional. A play that happens in a game that a guy gets hurt on _ are we going to start hitting guys for hitting a ground ball when a guy dives and breaks his shoulder?”
**ERVIN SANTANA
On his performance
“I felt great. Had a lot of energy. Things happen, we didn’t score runs, but that’s alright. We’ll get them next time.”
So you’re pleased with performance in this ballpark?
“It was good. I kept the ball down for the most part. Every time they hit the ball, if they hit it good it’s going to be out of here. So I’ll just try and erase this start and just get them next time.”
On his recent performances, couple good ones mixed with mediocre to bad ones
“It happens. Nobody’s perfect. I make good pitches, sometimes they hit them and sometimes they don’t. Just trying to stay with the same mentality and keep making good pitches.”
