CINCINNATI — Braves quotes from Eric Stults, Freddie Freeman, Kelly Johnson and Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s loss at Cincinnati.
**KELLY JOHNSON
On oblique strain and going on DL
“It’s just unfortunate. I was hoping it was – you know, everybody has stuff, little pains – so anything like that I’ve had in the past you just deal with it and it goes away and it’s not a big deal. But after swinging and missing that first pitch, I kind of knew right away that something wasn’t right.”
You’ve had this before
“No, I just meant over the course of your career you have little things and think, oh, what is that? Ends up being fine. That’s what I’m saying, go into the game, see what happens, take a chance.”
When did it start hurting?
“Probably the last round of batting practice, I felt something. I guess I just didn’t really want to believe it was anything and I could take care of it, and do some things in the weight room to take some pressure off it and get it loose. I definitely feel bad for handcuffing Fredi, and obviously any time you have to have somebody come in for you on an 0-2 count, you don’t feel good about that.”
Ever been DL’d before for this injury?
“No, never.”
On getting DL’d when he’s off to such a good start (leads team in homers, tied for RBI lead)
“You say, why does something like that happen, you know? Just the way it is. Baseball.”
**ERIC STULTS
On it being easy part to give up home runs
“Yeah, but if you execute pitches, usually good things will happen. The one to Marlon was one that was in off the plate; most guys it’s a pretty good pitch, but that’s kind of his swing pitch. I meant to throw that up at the belt, but just didn’t get it there. Then falling behind to Frazier, he got a pitch that he could drive. You really don’t blame the part. It’s just not executing pitches.”
Is getting beat by homers a lot in your past three starts any better than giving up a tone of hits, do you say if I can make an adjustment here and there?
“Yeah, I think so. I haven’t given up a lot of hits the last couple of starts, but the ones I have given up have been big ones. It goes back to pitch execution. Tonight falling behind to Frazier didn’t help. But I think it’s all adjustments that can be made, and need to be made. I feel like tonight stuff-was was OK, just a couple of pitches left over the plate. They’re swinging the bat well. Tonight they hit a lot of balls hard. One of those nights where they didn’t miss anything. You just give them credit, move on and try to keep working.”
**FREDDIE FREEMAN
On Braves being two-hit for eight innings by rookie Iglesias in his second start
“I’m just baffled. I had pitches to hit tonight. I can’t speak for everybody else, but every at-bat I had pitches right down the middle and I just missed them.”
A case of just not being used to that pitcher?
“No, just throwing 92-mile-an-hour two-seamers right down the middle. Three at-bats today, just popped them all up. Just one of those days today. Baffled.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On rookie Raisel Iglesias of the Reds allowing 2 hits in 8 innings
“He kind of reminded me of El Duque (Orlando Hernandez), with the high leg kick and throws from different angles. Bunch of pitches from different angles. We had him on the ropes one time, he got out of it. We had (runners on) first and second, nobody out, and we hit three fly balls. We put the ball in play but they didn’t fall.
“They got Stultsy pretty quickly – five innings, five runs. We weren’t able to come back. Both our hits came off the bench, EY and Ciriaco. Those were the only two hits of the game.”
On Stults giving up two homers in each of his past three starts
“I think the balls are over the plate, really. Byrd’s got him twice on balls over the plate, over at our place and here. He doesn’t have that velocity to make mistakes over the plate. I think that’s just a matter of staying from over the middle of the plate with his fastball and secondary pitches.”
On Kelly Johnson
“It was an oblique, and so we’re going to DL him. It’s one of those things, with those obliques we don’t mess with them. Those things will linger. Todd Cunningham will meet us in Miami.”
Did you know right away when he swung on first pitch and grimaced?
“The first swing I couldn’t tell really, I thought it might have been a back. But the second swing you could tell, classic oblique-type swing, the way he grabbed it. Knowing Kelly he tried to talk us out of it, ‘Let me have one more swing.’ I said, let’s not try to make it worse than it is.”
Unfortunate the way he’s been swinging the bat
“Yeah, he’s been a guy that can hit behind Freeman against right-handers and at least give the opposing manager some thought about putting Freeman on and pitching around him. But we’ll figure it out, who’s going to hit behind him.”
Stults stays in rotation for now?
“Yeah, for now. Come on, it’s 10-15 minutes after the ballgame. I have more things to worry about than to even think about that kind of stuff.”
On how he might use Cunningham
“Maybin (back up) Maybin, or maybe can play with Maybin in center field. The days you want to play him you could play (Cunningham) in center and put EY in left. Or if you want to play Maybin in center you could put EY or Cunningham in left field. But he (Cunningham) has been swinging the bat good. Hitting (.291).”
