CHRISTIAN BETHANCOURT
On his walk-off home run
I got a good report from the bench coach and the hitting coach. It was basically was the guy was going to go up there and throw sliders and cutters away. You’ve got to be looking for something out there. I was looking for one of those two pitches and I got one of them.
On if he knew he hit the home run
Not right away. I hit it and thought it was going to be foul ball. Then I saw (Gregory) Polanco running towards the running track and then I saw the ball carrying pretty well and then I knew I got it.
On the moment
That’s a moment I will never forget. My first major league home run became a walk-off homer. When you was a kid, those sort of things are always in your book. Those are things you wanted to do. You want to hit your first homer and you want to hit a walk-off homer. I got both at the same time so I’m pretty happy.
On how he feels at the plate
I feel pretty good. I’ve been feeling more confidence. I’ve been watching in the cage with the hitting coach and during BP trying to get back on track. Finally it seems like it is showing up so I am happy with it.
On if Julio Teheran had something extra tonight
Overall he was good tonight. I can’t ask for anything else. He came out with the game on the line with seven innings, one third, gave up two runs, four at the end of the night. I came to his locker and he had his head down. I told him keep your head up, you did a great job tonight. You battled the whole night. You gave up a two-run homer and the next three innings you shut them down. That’s the thing I’m looking for.
On if he relied on fastball more tonight
I could tell he was throwing harder tonight. I don’t know if he was angry or I don’t know what. He was throwing 94, 93 pretty much the whole night. It’s the kind of thing I’m looking for and he’s looking for. Get his four-seamer running more and getting some more speed and then just mix it up with off-speed.
FREDI GONZALEZ
On Christian Bethancourt
He had a good game. He had a good game offensively, he had a good game defensively calling pitches. He threw a runner out. Good, maybe a game like this will get him going a little bit. When you see him with power from both fouls. Today was a good game. I’m glad we won that game. I thought Julio pitched good baseball. I think he pitched better than his linescore. I think we took him as far as we could take him. Gave him a chance to face three hitters in the eighth. It was a tough decision but I’m glad we got the win.
On Teheran bearing down after allowing two-run homer
I liked the way he pitched the whole game, really. I think the whole game he carried 93, 94 miles per hour. He pitched up in the strike zone with his four-seamer. I though the pitched well.
On if Teheran looked back to form
I talked to him in Arizona and Roger (McDowell) worked with him in the bullpen about going back to throwing his four-seamer. He did that today and I hope he carries that throughout the year because that’s the way you want to see him pitch
On if this can be a building step for Bethancourt
He’s been pretty good. He’s been pretty patient, keep working and never put his head down. Hopefully this carries him the rest of the year. This guy belongs in the major leagues, there’s no question. There’s no ifs, buts or maybes there. Maybe this game will catapult him through the rest of the summer.
On if he could tell Teheran didn’t want to come out
That’s what you want. You don’t want guys to meet you halfway when you go out there or keep looking in. He pitches, we make decisions. It wasn’t an easy decision but you give him an opportunity to hit in the bottom of the seventh and you give him the opportunity to get the first guy out. You give him two more opportunities to get through the eighth inning. Obviously we know we’ve been kind of struggling with our bullpen. I think you take him as far as you can take him and then you’ve got to make a decision.
On if he’s thought about leaving Cameron Maybin hitting lead-off when Jace Peterson returns
There is some though there but then you bunch up the lefties if you want to keep Peterson up (near) the top. Whether he’s leading off or hitting second it really doesn’t matter. But he’s really having a good month and a half of offense, stealing bases, coming up with some big hits at times.
JULIO TEHERAN
On how much he takes out of the start personally
Just a little. I’m just glad that I feel like I did my job and I was battling the whole game and just one mistake and it cost me two runs and other than that in the last inning I walked two batters and I wanted to stay out there.”
On if he got in a groove after the Andrew McCutchen home run
Yeah I was really good….that’s one mistake I made and it cost me two runs but I was really focused on this game and after that I stayed the same way I made my pitches like I was doing.
On his two-seam fastball tonight
I don’t want to stop throwing it. I did today, I used it a lot.
On what a night like tonight does for Christian Bethancourt
All we want to do is win. He hit a homer and our offense is doing a great job we have to keep right on like they’re doing. We’ll get everything together and we’re going to win some more games.
On if this is about as good as he’s felt
Yeah I mean I was attacking the zone and a couple times when I was behind in the count I came back and on those I was trying to attack the zone.
On if he felt like this was the dominant version of him we’ve seen in the past
Yeah, I was trying to be aggressive and just attack the zone like something I figured out I was doing in the past and this year I haven’t been doing it that much. But trying to do the same thing for the next (start), for the one coming up.
On where he was when Bethancourt hit the walk-off homer
I was in the training room getting stretched. But I like that we got the win.
On Fredi Gonzalez saying he and Roger McDowell have really focused on using his four-seamer a lot more
Yeah it felt really good, and today you can see that the ball was coming out really good from my hands, even the two-seamer was a little higher. Everything is fine, just trying to work hard and continue to win.”
On if when he’s re throwing that well everything works off one another
Yeah you can see that it’s a different game. With my four-seamer coming in and my two-seamer working, it’s a different game.”
On how he felt with his slider
The mistake I made was with my slider, but I’m not going to stop throwing it because I have confidence in my pitches and if I make a mistake, I just keep battling with it and throw it and throw it. That’s when you have confidence.
CHRIS JOHNSON
On if it looked like the Julio Teheran of old
Yeah he looked good. He looked like he had that look in his eye tonight, he was good for us.
On if it seemed like Teheran’s getting his mojo back
Yeah absolutely, that’s probably the one thing that did stick out is he didn’t care who was up. He was going right after hitters. When he’s doing that it’s tough because he has all his other stuff and he keeps guys off balance and works both sides of the plate. It was fun playing behind him.
On if the walk-off win felt nice after some highs and lows
Yeah we were just talking earlier today. We just have to find a way to win those close games. I feel like we’ve been on the other side of those a little bit this month so hopefully this is a start to kind of turn those games around and find a way to win.
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