NEW YORK — Braves quotes from Justin Upton, Alex Wood, Chris Johnson and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Braves’ 3-2 loss to the Mets.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
“It just killed us, four double plays. And nobody wants to hit into a double play, let’s face that. La Stella had a rocket double play with Gattis, couldn’t do much about that.
“The good thing is, Woody gave us a great chance to win the game. He went seven innings and just gives up three runs, and we get two and you feel like you have a chance. Then we had a man in scoring position there in the eighth inning with the right guy at the plate (Freeman). They made a pitch, got him out.”
On Wood making just a couple of mistakes
“I wouldn’t (necessarily even say he made two). Definintely the home run was a change-up that just came right back over the plate. Against a guy that’s pretty aggressive. But you go out and if you say your starter’s going to go out and give up three runs, you feel like you’ve got a chance to win the game.”
“I thought Woody did a nice job, I really did. There were a couple of hits here and there, but other than the two-run homer, and maybe the double, I thought that he did a nice job.”
On JUpton
“He’s swinging the bat really well, now we’ve just got to get some people (on the bases) in front of him.”
**ALEX WOOD
Did you feel like you got better after the homer?
“I don’t know if I got better or if they kind of sat back, hoping that would hold up. Either way, we managed to get through the last three or four innings unscathed. It’s just frustrating when you don’t get a shutdown (inning) after we tied the ball game up.”
Other than that one pitch, the homer, did you feel you got better as the game went on?
“I thought I knocked some of the rust off a little bit from the off day (extra day of rest). But at the same time, it wasn’t my sharpest, for sure, throughout. But I battled and was able to get through seven.”
On the homer by Lagares, did the double by previous batter affect pitch selection, etc?
“The double didn’t have any effect. It was just a really bad pitch there to that guy. A full-count change-up is usually something you throw more to, like, a Duda or Granderson or David Wright, probably. I mean, he’s a good hitter, he’s going up there trying to cover everything. I hung a change-up and he put it out of the park.”
Can you take any positives from stringing together some good starts, or does team not winning negate all that?
“I mean, you can take positives from anything. But we’re here for one reason, that’s to make it to the playoffs and win as many games down the stretch as we can. And the reason I’m on the mound, you can’t help but kind of take responsibility because you’re the guy with the ball in your hand. So it’s one of those things where you go back and look at the few positives that there were, and you can go back and look at the ultimate negative, that we lost the game. There’s only so much you can take away (positive). There’s always stuff you can take away, but at the same time, everybody in here is here to win. If I don’t hold up my end of the bargain, how can I expect anybody else to do something extra special? You’ve got to control what you can control, and I gave up the big knock tonight and they ended up coming out on top.”
That one pitch is the one that you’ll think about, the home-run ball?
“I think if I make a good-located change-up there, I don’t think he does that. But any time you throw a change-up in a count where you know he’s swinging and you leave it right down the middle 3-2, I mean, these are the big leagues, he’s going to make you pay. That’s what ended up happening there. I think if I make the pitch there, at best he gets a single. It was a bad pitch. I think it was more of a physical mistake than a mental one.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On grounding into two double plays after Upton reached base
“I picked a couple of bad times to hit ground balls. Couple of hits there in the spots where I came up probably could have changed the game a little bit. I stunk.”
On feeling bad for Alex Wood
“We feel bad any time a pitcher goes out there and shoves and goes deep in the game, gives up three runs, and we blow it for him.”
Does this feel different than some other nights you didn’t score many runs, since you grounded into four double plays?
“Yeah, we had chances. It’s part of the game. When you put the ball sometimes you hit it right at them and turn double plays. Sometimes you pick bad times to hit ground balls. I got a couple of sinkers down and they were good pitches, and that’s what happens when you swing at those, you hit ground balls. And I’m not a speed demon.”
On team winning five in a row, now losing four of six since then
“We’re real streaky. We either get on a roll, or we get on a roll the other way. It’s something we’ve been trying to figure out all year. Hopefully we can get on a good roll, I guess. I don’t know, it’s just one of those weird things with this team.”
**JUSTIN UPTON
On four double-plays Braves hit into
“We had people on base. Their pitcher made pitches to get out of jams, or before we could get him into a jam. That’s part of the game. We’ve just got to keep our heads up.”
Team won five in a row, now has lost four of six
“We’ve just got to keep playing. Results are results. There’s nothing we can do about that, we’ve just got to continue to try to play better, play better baseball and try not to get too far ahead of ourselves.”
On Gee being effective against Braves once again, after struggling in many of his other recent starts
“He looks like himself. Obviously we had some opportunities and some balls that we missed. We maybe got a little aggressive at times, including myself in my third at-bat. It’s one of those things, man. We’ve just got to play better.”
