SAN DIEGO — Braves quotes from Matt Wisler, A.J. Pierzynski and Fredi Gonzalez after the Braves’ 9-0 loss to the Padres on Tuesday.
**A.J. PIERZYNSKI
On Wisler’s performance
“The first couple of innings he was kind of picking a little bit. He got more aggressive and he actually got better. Obviously the triple (with one out in third) is tough to battle around, but he did damage control. As the innings went on he got more and more command of his off-speed pitches, which is huge for him. We need more depth out of him, we need more than five innings, and he knows that. We talked to him about it. The last two outings he’s only given us five, but he’ll continue to get better, and there’s positive signs there.”
On Melvin Upton Jr. hitting two homers on pitches left over the plate
“We made a couple of mistakes; we made a bunch of mistakes tonight. So it wasn’t like he was…. He just hit two, good for him.”
On the Braves' losing 17 of past 19 road games
“We have a young team obviously, especially in the pitching staff. I don’t know what the numbers say, but they probably pitch better at home than they have on the road. It’s a comfort factor. It’s a routine, I don’t know what it is. But we work with these guys and we’re trying, and they’ll get better. I just think they’re trying to figure it out at the big-league level. They’re learning a lot, and you can see them processing it all. Especially Wisler, Folty and a lot of guys coming out of the bullpen. They’ve never been in this situation, they’ve never been in any of these stadiums, they’ve never seen half these guys. So they’re trying to figure it out. They’re doing a good job and I’m proud of them.”
On losing nine in a row at Petco Park
“I know when I was with the White Sox we couldn’t win a game in Oakland forever, and Toronto we went, like, three years without winning a game. Sometimes it just works like that. Sometimes you don’t match up. But we had a chance. We had the bases loaded with no outs and we didn’t score. Give Shields credit, he made pitches. I mean, there were chances. We had a chance right there to get the lead, Wis rolls out and gets a couple more innings and next thing you know we win the game. So there’s opportunities, you just have to take advantage of them.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Wisler’s outing and how things spiraled against the bullpen in the sixth
“You want (Wisler) to go deeper, obviously. We didn’t want to mess around with him; I think it’s just a little side (of the arm) action on the line drive, but also his pitch count (85) was a little high, too. I didn’t want to run him back out there, sitting on the bench I think he could have stiffened up a little bit. But you know, it’s a 2-nothing game and you’ve got the (relievers) you feel are the good matchups. They’ve done a good job and continue to do a good job, but today that didn’t happen. They scored a lot of runs against those guys today.”
On the offense
“We had a chance to get Shields. Bases loaded, nobody out, and he wiggled out of it. We had some people on base almost every time he went out there, and he wiggled out of some of those situations. Instead of tying the score or even being ahead, we never got a run.”
On Melvin Upton Jr. torching you for two homers and five RBIs, pretty much what you had half-seriously predicted beforehand
“It happens, right? It happens all the time. Maybin’s doing it to (the Padres, his former team). It’s just one of those things. The baseball gods. I think Uggla got us earlier in the year. (Upton) put two good swings, home runs.”
On the bullpen’s ugly sixth inning turning a close game into a blowout
“It’s a 2-nothing game at the time, and you feel like you bring in those guys to keep it at 2-nothing, and it’s a battle of the bullpens. We just didn’t get it done today.”
On James Shields’ start for the Padres
“I’ve seen his velocity a lot better than I saw today, for whatever reason. But you know what? He didn’t give in. He changed speeds really well, especially with people on base.”
On Wisler’s arm
“I’m sure it’ll be sore tomorrow (from being hit). I didn’t want to take a chance, with the pitch count, of letting that get stiffened up. We checked him in here and I think he’ll be fine in his next start.”
**MATT WISLER
On his arm after being hit
“I’ll be fine. Threw a curveball to Shields and he put a good swing on it. Luckily I got the out on it.”
Fredi said it didn’t hit you squarely, could have been worse?
“It still got me right in the triceps. It might be a little sore, just from hitting right on the muscle. Just get some ice on it, keep the swelling down, it’ll be fine.”
On his performance and leaving after 85 pitches in five innings
“That’s definitely something I need to start doing is start getting deeper in games. I try and pride myself on going six or seven every time out, and I haven’t done that in my last however many starts. So I definitely need to start getting more efficient on the mound. I thought I made some strides the last couple of innings. I had almost 50 pitches through the first two, and after that I got down to 15 pitches an inning. So definitely a lot of work on that, being more efficient, attacking guys early in the count and getting ahead. I haven’t been doing that as well as I should have been lately.”
On facing his former organization, the Padres, in his first-ever start at San Diego
“That was cool. It’s always fun to pitch against guys you know. Obviously you want to win those battles every time.”
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