Braves quotes from Mike Minor, Chris Johnson, B.J. Upton and manager Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s loss to the Cardinals.
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On Wainwright
“It’s tough when you got a little momentum going last night, and then you run into a brick wall in that guy. He’s tough. He’s real good. And he grinds out there, too. It’s a tough at-bat. It’s like every single time you go up there, he throws you something different in a different spot. It’s uncomfortable. This is one of those days where I think the off day is going to come at a really good time. We can kind of get away from it tomorrow and come back refreshed and start a new streak.”
On Wainwright being even tougher with a lead
“Yeah, not too many times you’re going to see a team throw five, six, seven runs up against a guy like that. He just doesn’t allow it. He’s good. If he gets a guy on, he just bears down and works on getting the next guy out. He’s tough. Tip your cap to him today.”
**B.J. UPTON
On how tough it is to face Wainwright, especially when he has a lead
“Yeah, he had his stuff tonight. That’s the way it goes. He’s that good for a reason, and when a guy like him has his stuff it’s going to be tough.”
Even tougher when he gets guys on base?
“He got a lead, we got a couple of guys on base … that’s what good pitchers do. Tip your cap to him. We took some pretty good swings off him, but he made some pitches when he needed to. Hit a couple of balls hard, unfortunately there were right at guys. That’s just the way it’s going right now. Can’t worry about it too much. Just got to take this off day and then kind of rebound Friday.”
Do you think the team’s had some better at-bats last few games than against the Giants?
“Yeah. I really don’t think our at-bats have been that bad in general. Like I said, when things don’t go your way, things don’t go your way, and they’re not going our way right now. I say we don’t change a thing, just come out and keep fighting, keep competing, and try our best to win some games.”
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Minor
“I don’t think we made very good pitches. Mike, his second start, his secondary pitches weren’t — the breaking balls weren’t real sharp. They were kind of roly-poly over the strike zone and you do that with a team like that, it can hurt you. And Wainwright was pretty good. So we had not so good performance from our side and a real good performance from their side pitching-wise, and that’s the kind of game you’re going to get.”
You surprised by Minor after he pitched well vs. Giants first time out?
“Yeah, I sure was. But again it’s his only second start coming out of his spring training so we’ll work on that. His secondary pitches weren’t as good as we’ve seen them before.”
On Wainwright, good as usual?
“He’s a tough at-bat. He’s got that big curveball that, shoot, a couple times I think he threw it three times in a row. And he competes. He helped himself offensively with the bat and we had a chance to get back in it a little bit and he made some great pitches and we didn’t get a run.”
On Minor using a lot of fastballs first time through
“Well, you better have another pitch and that’s what I mean, when you’ve got a good team or any team for that matter, if they know that you can’t get a secondary pitch over for a strike, they eliminate it and then you’ve just got to battle with one pitch and it’s tough to do that in the major leagues. If you are able to do that, you better be able to command it and throw it where you want to throw it. We’ll run him back out there. And Roger will work on his side and maybe get that secondary pitch better next time.”
**MIKE MINOR
On his fastball
“They battled some good pitches, and then I left some over the middle of the plate.”
Fredi G said your secondary pitches weren’t as sharp tonight, put you in a hole some
“I didn’t throw too many of them. So there’s not really much to compare it to. I threw a couple that were pretty good, I think I got Peralta to strike out on one of them. And I threw a couple of curveballs to Adams. Other than that…. I threw a changeup over the middle of the plate, and Peralta hit that one later in the game. But other than that it was a lot of fastballs.”
Did you feel better in first start against the Giants than tonight
“It was the same.”
Was it pitch selection, did you guys kind of go away from the secondary pitches?
“I guess so. That’s how the game kind of developed. I got a lot of looking strikeouts on the two-seamer in, and then I think we just kept going to it and going to it. Later on in the game when I tried to go fastball away I left it more over the middle. And changeup the same thing, it was (over the) middle. So those pitches were either off (target) and taken, or they were middle-in and hit hard.”
Fastball command not as sharp today as against the Giants?
“I threw more two-seam today, so with the two-seam today, I have to start it off more to the left side. So when I went to the four-seam you have to make that adjustment as a pitcher and I didn’t do it tonight. Whenever I was trying to go away with the four-seam it was cutting or I was missing (over the) middle. And I tried to throw a couple of two-seamers on the outside and it didn’t move a lot.”
Can you take some solace from fact it was only your second start?
“I’m not worried. One good start, one bad start. There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to speculate on, you know, ‘What’s the move now? Minor had a bad start.’ Well, it’s my second start up here and my first one I thought was pretty good, other than the home run. Two home runs the last game, and I gave up another one tonight. Which I’ve got to keep those down or (eliminate) them.”
