WASHINGTON — Braves quotes from Ervin Santana, Freddie Freeman, Christian Bethancourt and manager Fredi Gonzalez after the Braves’ 6-4 loss Tuesday at Washington.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Santana’s rough first inning and the loss
“They came out swinging the bats and were really, really aggressive in the first pitches of every at-bat. Usually when they do that against him, he gets quick outs. But today they found the outfield grass and put a big number up, four runs. We weren’t able to recover after that, but we battled, and came back and scored some runs and made it a two-run game. Our bullpen did a terrific job holding them. We had some opportunities to get within one run or even try to tie the game there. Justin’s big blast gave us a little life there, to get us within two runs.
On waiting Bonifacio leadoff double in eighth
“That’s the one I was talking about. (If) we scratch another run there and like we always talk about, one run down or one run up is different than two runs down or two up. But they came out of the bullpen and matched up well against us.”
On Bethancourt’s errant pickoff throw to first base, ends up being costly error
“It’s one of those things that, Free never saw him pop up (to throw). You’ve got a left-handed hitter and Betty’s got a pretty strong arm, and that ball went all the way to the wall. But (Freeman) never saw him. He kind of disappeared behind (the hitter), he never saw him come out of there.”
On Freeman trying to steal with two out in first, got throw out with JUpton batting
“Sometimes they don’t pay attention to (Freeman). A lot of times. This guy is not one of the base-stealers, and we’ve been able to steal a run every once in a while. Justin was buried in the count, 1-2 I think it was. I was thinking maybe a breaking ball, and I gave (Freeman) the green light from there. We’ve done it a couple of times with Chris Johnson. Now the secret’s out. But with CJ he’s been able to kind of get a walking lead and steal a base every once in a while.”
On La Stella’s migraine and being scratched
“Yeah, he was a late scratch, obviously available to pinch-hit. He came in with a headache and stuff and I didn’t want to take a shot at it. I just made a change in the lineup.”
Did you think your team swung the bats a little better tonight at least?
“Yeah, we scored four runs off a pretty darn good pitcher. They made an (error) and we hit a two-run homer…. I feel like we always swing the bats well, we just don’t get any runs at times.”
**ERVIN SANTANA
On Nationals being aggressive, ambushing him on lot of first pitches in first inning
“It was tough, but I made some good pitches. Because everything’s going there way right now, every good pitch that I made they hit it for a base hit. We swung at first pitches, too, and it was ground balls and ground balls. It’s nothing we can do. We just have to keep playing hard and try to turn it around.”
On Nats swinging at first pitches two nights in a row, but getting more hits tonight
“I think they just found more holes. It’s part of the game.”
Were you happy you were able to settle in and get through five innings?
“I was happy with how I performed, just one bad inning. It wasn’t that bad because I made my pitches and they still hit it. Just one of those days.”
Still, this late in the season, even if it’s just one of those days, how does it feel to lose like that?
"Not good. We're trying to win the game. It's very important for our team to win the game, every single game that we've got left. So…it's not fun at all."
**CHRISTIAN BETHANCOURT
On throwing to first base trying to get Werth, ball sailed to right-field corner
“He was taking his lead and he was walking back to first, so I thought I had a chance and I threw the ball. I threw it while Freddie wasn’t looking, so … can’t do anything about it.”
Just trying to be aggressive there, make something happen?
“Yeah, more than anything I was trying to help Ervin because he was having a rough start. I thought there was a chance, so I threw the ball over there. It didn’t happen, so we’ve got to move forward.”
On Santana’s first inning
“Just one of those days, wherever he threw the ball they hit it and it just lands where no one is. So, I mean, he threw the ball, they swing the bat. That’s the ballgame.”
They were really aggressive at the plate, huh?
“They swing the bat pretty well. You have to make your pitch and if you don’t do it they’re going to get the best of you. That’s what they did and they got. They put some good at-bats, and that’s why they won the ballgame.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
Did you think you swung the bats better tonight?
“We definitely did. In our opinion, we think Zimmermann is their ace. We’re swinging the bats really well; we hit the ball hard, even lined out a few times, and we got some runs on the board. So if you can take a positive away from here, that’s the positive, and hopefully we can come out here tomorrow and put some more runs on the board.”
On Nats being aggressive against Santana
“They did that yesterday too. They came out swinging at the first pitch yesterday. I don’t know if that’s their game plan, or they’re getting pitches to hit. They just kept swinging, didn’t matter if it was an off-speed or a fastball, they seemed to be getting the pitch to hit and they weren’t missing the first couple of innings.”
Scoreboard watching at all tonight?
“I’m not, personally. We’ve got to worry about ourselves. If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter what that scoreboard says, what the Pirates or the Brewers are doing. We’ve got to worry about ourselves, go out there and play good baseball games, and we’ve got to start tomorrow.”
Thought not eliminated from NL East race, are you starting to think more about wild card?
“I mean, we still have a chance. Once we’re fully eliminated from the division race we’ll worry about the wild card, but we’ve got four games against the Nats in the next seven games. We can play some good baseball against them and get right back in this division race, and you never know what could happy in the last couple of weeks.”
