Braves quotes from Shelby Miller, Chris Johnson and Fredi Gonzalez after Tuesday’s 8-3 loss to the Giants.
**SHELBY MILLER
How frustrating is it for you to pitch well so many times and see the team lose in the end?
“I mean, my job is to go out there and put zeroes up. Whether I go five innings, seven innings, whether I have good games or bad games, it’s all going to happen. I mean, at the end of the day obviously it’s a tough loss for us. I felt like we were in a good situation to win the ballgame. Obviously the (Braves) offense coming back and getting those two runs was pretty huge. It just kind of fell apart for us in the eighth. And I saw the pitches (by Braves relievers in the eighth) were good; some of them were good.”
How did you feel out there overall tonight?
“I felt good. I felt like my fastball command today was better than it was my last start. Even though I walked a couple of guys and it might not have seemed like it at times, for the most part it felt like it was good. I felt like we threw the cutter good and A.J. called a great game, and some key plays were huge. Overally, physically felt good.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On lack of run support during Shelby Miller’s 14-start winless streak
“Yeah, I don’t know, I can’t explain it. We know it, too, as an offense. When he pitches I think we just try to do too much. We would really, really like to bust out and get the guy a lead, but, God, lately every time he pitches we can’t do it.”
Is it hard not to think about it when he’s pitching?
“Absolutely. Because he’s a teammate, we care about him, and he’s been pitching great. For him to pitch as well as he has and not be able to come up with wins – cause that’s what a lot of pitchers on our team care about, is winning the game. A lot of people say ‘Oh, his ERA is good, so who cares?’ But that’s not the way he thinks. He wants to win ballgames, and we’re just not giving him the opportunity.”
On the one-out grounder and not throwing to second base to try for potential inning-ending double play with runner going home
“Yeah, I screwed up. I screwed up. Stupid mental error.”
You didn’t realize there was only one out?
“Yeah.”
Might have been a difficult double play anyway with Pence batting….
“Doesn’t make a difference. I screwed up.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On another night where Shelby Miller is effective but doesn’t get the win
“He was great. He gives up a run in the first inning and then settles in the rest of the night. He had the lead in the eighth inning and we just couldn’t get through that eighth inning. That kind of unraveled on us and he doesn’t get any decision. But he was great. He was dominant throughout the whole game. You can’t ask for anything more from him, really. You really can’t. He was great.”
On if he’s seen a starter even go 14 decisions without a win despite pitching well for the most part
“I’m going to say off the top of my head, no way. I’ve never seen anything this long. But he keeps his head up and he keeps battling and he knows what he has to do. And again today we had a lead for him, which probably hasn’t happened in a long time, and we just couldn’t – we had the right people in there, we just couldn’t hold it.”
On Chris Johnson forgetting how many outs there were on the bases-loaded ground out in the top of the sixth
“I think it’s a hard double-play, anyway. Either a 3-6-3 or a 3-6-1, it would’ve been a hard double-play. There’s no excuse for not knowing how many outs (there are). Everybody has mental lapses there, but I liked the way Shelby Miller reacted to that. It didn’t affect him. He went out there and got the next guy out and kept it right there. So, I liked that reaction out of him.”
On how Gregor Blanco has become the “improbable nemesis” for the Braves
“It seems like that. I’m sure there are teams around the like that have those nemeses against former teams and stuff like that. And we’ve seen it here, early in the year with Dan (Uggla). Danny got us, other guys pitching against us or playing against us. But it’s been a long time. You would think he’d forget that he played here, but when he comes up he comes up big. I saw the batting average against us (for his) career and I want to say it was in the high 350s or the 360s with a lot of at-bats. But I don’t know if he does it subconsciously or just one of those things, but he’s always a pain in your side, really.”
On walking Buster Posey to get to Hunter Pence, who hit a three-run home run
“It’s one of those situations where, Buster, he’s a pretty good darn player and he’s got four or five RBIs against us. And you’re just trying to get one out there. In that inning you were just going to get an out by (Ross) Detwiler or a couple outs by (David) Aardsma and it’s a different story and that didn’t happen and you get behind. And you know maybe with Pence you get a ground-ball double-play, which we got in the ninth inning, and we didn’t do it. It didn’t happen.”
On if Giants rookie Matt Duffy is underrated
“He’s underrated because you don’t see him, really. We saw him in San Francisco for three games and now we see him here for three games and he’s pretty darn good.”
On the night of Nick Markakis
“You know what, he gives you good at-bats. On that at-bat that we got the go-ahead run on, there was a lot of good things happening there. We got Nick putting the ball in play against a tough left-hander and we got great base-running there by (Pedro) Ciriaco – stopping and not getting in a double-play and allowing that run from third base to score.”
On the performance of Daniel Castro, who went 3-for-4
“(He was) swinging his bat. He’s a guy that you appreciate. The more you see him play, you appreciate him, and he’s got great feet around the bag, second base. He’s got short hands. He’s a guy, the more you watch him play, the better you appreciate him.”
