Braves quotes after Tuesday’s loss to the Phillies

Braves quotes from Fredi Gonzalez, Jason Heyward, Ervin Santana and Chris Johnson after Tuesday’s home loss to the Phillies.

**FREDI GONZALEZ

On Kendrick having Braves’ number over the years

“You know what, he had some pitches today. He had the two-seamer, he had the cutter, threw some change-ups and he hit his spots. First two, three hitters, he didn’t throw a ball. His command was pretty darn good. We battled, stayed in the game, and you always feel like you’ve got a chance when you’re two runs, three runs down.”

On just when you think Howard is done, he comes back and…

“I don’t ever think that (he’s done). We were talking about it, just before that home run, Walk (Greg Walker) and I and Carlos (Tosca). Well, Walk was doing most of the talking, saying ‘Here’s a guy that was hitting .230 and strikes out (a lot), people are calling him out, but he’s still 45 RBIs and high teens in home runs and he’s still very, very dangerous, a very productive hitter.’ Two pitches later the ball goes out of the ballpark. I think he’s still a scary hitter.”

On what you were looking for in the first inning with Santana facing him

“Make some pitches. He just left a two-seamer right over the plate on him and he’s not a guy that, when he’s going good — and I’ve seen him for a long time — when Ryan is going good, that’s where he’s hitting the ball, to left field. Even though he’s a left-handed hitter, he’s hitting the ball out in the seats in left field.”

On Braves not having many opportunities, but having a few

“We had some opportunities. I think our pitching staff, our bullpen did a terrific job, considering the shape we were in. Beato gave us two strong innings there and Shae Simmons got that one hitter out and Avi got through that ninth inning facing those left-handers and it’s nice to see him get some groundballs against left-handed hitters.”

On whether Justin Upton came out due to the heat

“They’re calling it dizziness, a little light-headed. He battled through it the first couple innings, it just kept getting worse. We’ll check him tomorrow. The doctors looked at him this evening and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

On if heat-related or illness

“I’m not sure. He didn’t seem to think, just talking to him a little bit, he didn’t seem sick. He said, ‘I feel light-heated and dizziness.’ It wasn’t like fever or any of that kind of stuff.”

On if thought Santana was a little better tonight than he’s been lately

“I thought his command was better. I thought his secondary pitches were better.”

On ball dropping in front of B.J., through Laird’s legs, or else maybe Santana would have had better chance

“He would have had a really, really good outing. And I still think him giving us six innings, and he would have been out there in the seventh if it wasn’t for the pitch count. It got up pretty high, uncomfortable for me to run him back out there. I thought he did OK.”

On how things are going for Braves when you see Simmons commit two errors in one inning

“Yeah that last one was, that ball took a nasty hop. He doesn’t make two errors in two months. But go get ‘em tomorrow.”

**CHRIS JOHNSON

On Kyle Kendrick being better than his record

“He’s good. We knew what we were getting coming into the game. He’s got good stuff. He pounds the zone. He’s got so many different pitches, so many variations of those pitches, he throws the ball where he wants to throw it. He keeps you off-balance at-bat to at-bat. So you’ve got to tip your cap to him. He did a pretty good job.”

On the team’s offensive frustrations

“Yeah, we want to get it going. We want to obviously throw up some crooked numbers, but we’ve just got to keep grinding. Can’t get too frustrated, can’t get too down, we’ve got another game here in a little while. So we’ve just got to keep battling, keep working at it, and hope that our hard work pays off at the end.”

On team’s long malaise, with only a few interruptions

“Yeah, we’ve had a couple of games here and there where we kind of figure it out a little bit, but we’re still struggling to find it. We’re still struggling to find ourselves and our offense a little bit. But there’s a lot of baseball left to go. So just keep working at it.”

**JASON HEYWARD

On team struggling in recent weeks

“The results of the games show. Extra opportunities to get it done, those are going to make it easier for (opponents) at times. That’s the name of it. That’s what happens in the playoffs, you give teams extra opportunities to score, extra at-bats, make your pitchers throw more pitches, things can happen. Play good teams and that’s what’s going to happen.”

On Kendrick being better than his record

“Absolutely. He made pitches, didn’t miss very many times over the plate, kept us off-balance. Hats off to him, gave up, what, two runs? And one of the runs was a double play. He threw to contact, but at the same time he made some pitches. He nibbled a little bit and made a pitch when he had to.”

On Diekman, the lefty reliever

“His ERA does not show how tough he is. He’s a lefty, he’s got some velocity obviously, and a slider and a curveball. I felt like I did a good job that AB swinging at the strikes, trying to put the ball in play somewhere. B.J. put a good swing on him, and he made some good pitches to Free (Freeman).”

On whether it’s getting frustrating

“Mentally we’re in this every day. Every day’s a new day, and that’s that. Tomorrow we’ve got an opportunity to salvage a homestand for us. Tonight’s over with.”

**ERVIN SANTANA

On trying to go deep in game

“I was trying to give the bullpen a rest, but I was a little bit behind in the counts.”

On the first inning, lot of pitches

“The pitch that Howard hit, that wasn’t a good pitch. Just one of those days.”

How rough has this been in past seven starts since that great early six, those first six starts?

“A little bit frustrating, but at the same time this is a team, and we play as a team and lose as a team. I know we’ve had ups and downs right now but we just have to keep our minds positive and play one game at a time.”

Do you feel like you’re just an adjustment away, that you can get back to where you were fairly easily?

“Yeah, we’ve got ups and downs, nobody’s perfect. We have to keep the same mentality, positive all the time, and we’re going to get out of this.”

This is probably not as frustrating as 2012 was for you, right?