Braves quotes from Shelby Miller, Jace Peterson and Fredi Gonzalez after Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Rockies.
**JACE PETERSON
On frustration in the clubhouse
“We come every day to try to get a win, and it seems like we can’t do it consistently. So, yeah, we’re frustrated. I thought Shelby threw a great game. He had that one inning where things kind of got out of hand, but I thought he threw great, gave us a chance. We were right there at the end of the ballgame, still had a chance to win it, so we kept fighting.”
On small crowds past three nights
“It’s definitely not fun playing in front of an empty crowd, but I know when we win, they’ll come. So we’ve just got to keep fighting, keep playing, and hopefully this weekend the fans come out and show support, because that definitely means a lot to us and it definitely keeps us up. So it’s more fun to play when the house is packed.”
On Colorado bullpen
“They kept us off-balance and we couldn’t get it done. That’s baseball. Take an off day tomorrow and Friday come back and get after the Yankees.”
On his three-hit, two-sac bunt game
“Personally I feel good, but you don’t really ever feel that good about it when you lose.”
On getting a 3-0 lead for Shelby Miller
“He was lights-out the whole ballgame. We go up right there, get three runs, and hopefully we could have got a couple more, but we didn’t. That’s baseball and it happens, but hopefully we can get him a win next time.”
On Miller’s 18-start winless streak, you ever seen anything as strange?
“It’s definitely up there, but we’ve seen some strange things happen this year. Like I said, rather stay focused and locked in. We’ve got another month and a few days, so we’ve got a lot of baseball left to play.”
Team think about his 18-start winless streak?
“It’s terrible, but I know he’s going to keep battling and we’re going to get him a win here pretty soon.”
**SHELBY MILLER
On the four-run seventh inning by Rockies
“I just got in a little rut there and the momentum just kind of kept going for them.”
On the groove he was in through sixth
“I felt good. I felt like we had good command of our pitches, Betty (Bethancourt) called a great game. Other than that, I felt good.”
One of those nights where you realize again this game can be cruel?
“Yeah, I mean, you give up some good at-bats, and then you go out there and make some pitches and don’t have anything to show for it. At the same time, that’s part of the game. And that’s what happened.”
** FREDI GONZALEZ
On Miller’s four-run seventh inning to blow 3-0 lead
“There was some bad luck. He made a nice pitch to Blackmon and the ball hit off the plate and got up in the air, we couldn’t get anybody out. The (hit) to Bourny out there, first or second hitter of the inning, he tried to dive for it and just…. They put a big number up. But those are the types of games where you like to have Shelby Miller pitching, especially the way he’s been going. You’ve got a 3-nothing lead, run him back out there and you feel pretty good.”
On the homers in sixth to push lead to 3-0
“We got back-to-back home runs. But we didn’t add on. We had some opportunities, even in the ninth inning. You hate to give up those two runs in the eighth. We had bases loaded a couple of times, just didn’t get that two-out knock to make get some add-on runs.”
What are you thinking when he’s got a 3-0 lead and all of a sudden in the seventh they’re batting around and scoring four runs?
“I’m thinking, this is his game. I’m not bringing anybody from that bullpen for a lot of different reasons that we talk about. But hey, this guy hasn’t won a game in a long time, we’re going to give him every single opportunity to do it. And again, it’s just a chopper off the p late, got up in the air, a ball splits a gap … we just couldn’t get it done for him.”
Did you think about leaving him in or had the inning just spiraled by that point?
“Well, I did leave him in. By the time I took him out he was down one run. I did leave him in. At that point you try to minimize the damage and not let him throw another 15, 16 pitches.”
