Braves quotes from Mike Foltynewicz, Jace Peterson and Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to the Rays.
** FREDI GONZALEZ
on Foltynewicz’s performance
“You’re going to live through some growing pains. It’s a 3-3 game in the fifth inning, he strikes out the first two, loses his concentration or focus, walks the next guy, wild-pitches a guy to second. Next thing you know it’s a double and he’s in line for the loss and gives up two runs. Those are the growing pains you’re going to have to live with with a young pitcher. Go back to the drawing board, get his side (session) in a couple of days, and throw him back out there in five days.”
His last inning seems to be his undoing in each start so far?
“It’s hard to go through major league lineups and be locked in. I think he’s learning. We’ve seen it with all the young pitchers we’ve run through here in the last four or five innings. And he’s no different.”
The breaking ball seems like it’s there, but not consistent?
“It’s there, you see it, you see all those great things. I thought the triple, 0-2 or 1-2 count, he places it perfectly (the hit). He gets out of that jam just giving up one run. And we go back out in the second, get three and give him the lead. And they just kept tacking on. But the fifth inning, that’s a learning inning. You can’t let your guard down, especially after striking out the first two guys. But that’s what you’ve got to live through with a young pitcher. I know I keep saying that, but that’s the truth.
“And I think we got, what, two hits the rest of the game after the three-run second inning? But we were still in there. The bullpen did a nice job, Cahill came in after not pitching for a while and gave us two solid innings. Avi. And it was nice to see Masset get in there and also give us a 1-2-3 inning.”
**MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ
On his performance
“I attacked the zone all night, maybe too well. Off-speed was working great. It was just some bad luck in the first couple of innings, but other than that I thought I threw the ball well. Like I said, off-speed, I threw a lot of them for strikes.
“I think I had a lot of two-strike counts and they got some hits (on them). Other than that, it’s baby steps. It was a good outing. Just got to go out and continue to work at it.”
On them getting hits to drop on pitches he thought were good
“That was kind of the story all night. I was just pitching in the zone. They were filing some good pitches off and actually hitting some good pitches, but that’s baseball. They hit good pitches and swing through the bad ones. Other than that, not much I could do about it, just keep going out there and attacking the zone. I battled the whole night, just have to go out there next time and get better.”
On the problem in his last inning, has happened in several of his starts
“I think I was trying to overdo a little too much there in the later innings, trying to throw a little harder and make my pitches break more. Cabrera got ahold of one and that was the only bad pitch of the night, really. They had some other good hits, but you’ve got to walk away with the positives and go from there.”
More on his last inning
“I started trying to overthrow stuff and trying to make things break a little bit more than I wanted them to. That walk and that wild pitch led to the run there. I think I was trying to do too much in the later innings. I’ve just got to keep within myself the next time and go out there and pitch.”
**JACE PETERSON
Did you think Erasmo Ramirez, Rays starter, settled in well after the 3-run second inning?
“Yeah, he made some good pitches. I thought Folty threw pretty good, we just didn’t get it done tonight. But that’s the thing about baseball, we get to come back and get them tomorrow.”
Did Ramirez start throwing more strikes his last few innings?
“I don’t think so. Tonight we just got beat. I think it’s as simple as that, we got beat. We could have did some things better offensively, but other than that I think that we just got beat.”
On Folty’s performance first four starts
“Obviously he throws fuel (hard). He mixes it up well. I thought he did a good job tonight. He had a couple of bleeders that kept falling. I thought he competed.”
