NEW YORK — Braves quotes from Jim Johnson, Cody Martin, Eric Stults, Jace Peterson and Fredi Gonzalez after the Braves’ 3-2 loss to the Mets on Wednesday night at Citi Field.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On reliever Jim Johnson’s third consecutive bad outing on this road trip
“You get yourself in a jam when you walk the leadoff hitter. You get him 0-2, you feel pretty good. Granderson didn’t swing the bat. So, you get yourself behind the 8-ball there. Then when things are going good, they’re going good. And when things are not going good for us….
“We out-hit them; we got eight hits, they got seven. But they made some plays. Lagares made one of the best plays I’ve ever seen made on a ball going over his head. Tejada made a play off of Markakis’ line drive We hit the ball hard — I think Petey (Jace Peterson) hit the ball hard three times — and we only got two runs to show for it.
“I thought Stults pitched really, really well, and we had a chance to win the ballgame. But we didn’t get the balls to drop in.”
Bullpen recent struggles, a regression to the mean or are they a little taxed a bit this year?
“Taxed? No, these guys haven’t gone three games in a row, that kind of stuff. The bullpen has been used the right way. It’s just one of those things. It’s tough to be successful, for anybody, when you walk people late in the games.”
On Cody Martin starting out nearly perfect, had couple of home runs allowed since
“He made a mistake on Flores and he ran it out of the ballpark. But he (Martin) is a guy that, like Jim, when you put him in the game you feel like they’re going to get through the inning.”
More on Stults, did about everything you wanted to see tonight?
“Everything. He did a nice job changing speeds. He did a nice job doing everything he could to keep us in the ballgame.”
On Pierzysnki having a big game
“He’s got the bat going right now. And good for him. He’s come in here and done everything we’ve asked him to do, and more. He’s been able to mentor young Chris(tian) Bethancourt, and also been a productive guy. So good for us that he’s wearing a Braves uniform.”
Sense a different attitude in the Mets?
“No, they always play us tough. Terry (Collins) does a terrific job preparing those guys day in, day out. I think when you’ve got a winning streak, a lot of stuff goes right. We had them a couple of different times on the ropes, and we didn’t get the base hit. And they get a leadoff walk in the eighth and a little hit-and-run and the ball doesn’t go 70 feet, and they get (runners on) first and third out of it. But you know what? Good for them. When you run those long streaks — what is it now, nine, 10 in a row? – in the big leagues, you have a lot of breaks, a lot of stuff that has to go right, and it’s going right for them right now.”
**ERIC STULTS
Encouraged by how you pitched today, despite the outcome?
“Yeah. Unfortunately we weren’t able to pull it out there tonight. But I think as a starter you want to go out and give your team a chance to win, and I was able to do that. It just didn’t go our way tonight.”
On feeding off momentum after getting out of second-inning jam
“Yeah, I think so. The first two innings they had me, you could say, on the ropes. A leadoff triple, and they don’t end up scoring. Just giving up one run in the second, I felt like I had to find a way to keep us in the ballgame. Because it could have been the other way around, they could have scored three or four runs and the game could have gotten out of hand. But I was able to make some pitches there and was able to get out of it.”
What was working tonight compared to the first two starts?
“We had a pretty good gameplan. I think I threw more fastballs tonight, and tried to move the fastball around. Whereas the first two outings, most of the fastballs were on the outer half. Today we tried to mix it back and forth, so I think that was the biggest thing. You’ve got to execute. A.J. did a great job, he had a good feel back there. I didn’t have to shake him much, and that makes it easy as a pitcher, when you feel like your catcher has a good plan. You just go with it.”
More on the 38-year-old catcher Pierzysnki
“He’s doing good. He’s hitting, and he’s calling a good game. He’s been around long enough, he knows what he’s doing. He’s caught some no-hitters, so he knows how to call a baseball game. Like I said, it’s fun when you can get in a groove and whatever he puts down, you feel like it’s the right pitch, and you just try to execute it.”
**JIM JOHNSON
On his third straight bad outing on this trip
“I look at the execution on pitches and I feel like I executed a lot of pitches. Three days a week isn’t going to define my season. I know the ups and downs of a year, and it seems like a little luck went their way and it seems like it’s been going their way. That’s part of the season that we play.”
The leadoff walk the thing that irks you?
“Yeah, you never want to do that.” (Pauses a moment, seems about to say something, but stops.) “Yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”
On the Braves’ losing 5 of 7 since their 6-1 start
“It’s just the ups and downs of the season. There’s no one way to pinpoint it. We’re focusing on the right things still. Jason (Grill), myself and Luis (Avilan), we’ve been through it all before. And we know what’s important. So whenever our chance it out there, we’re going to come out there and execute the best we can, and just live with it from there.”
How encouraging was it to see Stults have the strong outing he had?
“Yeah, obviously as a bullpen you want to help out the guys that are grinding. Woody the other day, and Stultsy today. The way that they pitched…. Stultsy has been around a while now, and he knows what he’s doing, changing speeds and keeping guys off balance. If you want how he pitches, you can learn a lot. That’s actually what we were talking about down in the bullpen. We’re not just down there sitting around and screwing around. So obviously we want to convert the win to him, but obviously it didn’t work out tonight.”
On the little hit-and-run single through right side with Granderson going first to third and second baseman covering second
“It’s a hit-and-run right there. He did a good job putting the bat on the ball in the right spot. A little bit of luck (for the Braves) it goes to first, or it goes back to me, who knows? It’s just part of the game.”
**CODY MARTIN
On giving up tying homer to Flores in seventh inning
“I make one bad pitch tonight, and it really wasn’t that bad of a pitch. I went and looked at the video. I mean, it was a slider away. It wasn’t like it was elevated too much. But I think he was maybe looking slider and got the pitch he wanted, took a good swing. He kind of dove out there and hit it to left. At first I didn’t think it was going to carry that well, but it took off pretty good. It’s going to happen. You’re going to give up hits.”
Just the timing makes it tougher?
“Yeah, it sucks. You don’t want to blow a close lead like that, especially after Stultsy pitched his butt off. It’s tough. I haven’t had to go through that yet. It’s a learning curve. I’ll take something from this and get better.”
**JACE PETERSON
On Lagares’ terrific catch to rob him of extra-base hit
“Good player. I’m just trying to put the barrel on the ball and hopefully get a hit, and he made a play.”
“I don’t know. It sucks. But you’ve just got to keep coming, keep working, get after it every day, eventually they’ll fall.”
On Stults’ performance
“He was great, man. I played with him last year a little bit. He comes out and competes every game. Gave us a chance to win tonight, and fortunately we just didn’t get it done. But come back tomorrow, new day, get after it again.”
