Quotes from manager Fredi Gonzalez, pitcher Kris Medlen and infielder Chris Johnson following Wednesday's victory over the Mets.
**FREDI GONZALEZ
On Medlen
“I thought he did a nice job pitching. He gave us a great opportunity to win the ballgame, and we did. The bullpen did a nice job, Avi (Avilan) coming in there and inducing a ground ball with a guy that can run a little bit, Young. And Kimbrel did a nice job.”
On the early lead
“Three-run homer by Chris (Johnson) off a guy that he really hasn’t had any success with, Marcum. (Had been 1-for-12 with five strikeouts vs. Marcum.) I guess Marcum left a pitch out over the plate, and Chris hit a three-run homer.”
On Schafer scoring on wild pitch after doubling
“He did an unbelievable job. They shifted Mac, and Wright went over to shortstop. So that gave an opportunity to Schafe, a little bit more room. Nevertheless, he had great instincts to score on that ball. That ball didn’t get far from Buck, and he was able to score. He’s a heads-up player. You need to be heads-up and have some speed. Thirty feet from him, I wouldn’t be able to score. But he has both of those.”
“He made a nice play on the ball that went right over his head, got turned around. And he almost caught the one in right-center that Wright hit. He’s a good defender and always makes stuff happens when we get him in there.”
On B.J. Upton
“He’s swinging. Anytime you see balls get hit opposite field, those are good swings. It’s nice to see that.”
On Medlen’s throw to third base
“I’ve never seen that. Maybe if I go back to 10-and-under baseball, I can see that. But I’ve never seen that play done, ever. It was good for him to regain his composure. We score three runs, and all of a sudden it’s a 3-3 game. But anyway, I hope the kids were in bed by that time.”
Just the fact that he went to third made it such a bad play?
“Yes, going to third. In that situation, there’s no rhyme or reason throwing the ball to third base there. We’ve got to throw the ball to second base, get two, and if they get a base hit they score a run with two outs. Believe me, we don’t practice that play (to third).”
It looked like he actually had time but tried to finesse the throw
“It’s not a good play. I don’t care if you or I are running out there. So… We survived it. He survived it. He was able to get back on the mound and get going. We got the win.”
Did he have the green light to steal in sixth inning?
“No, he doesn’t have that either.”
**KRIS MEDLEN
On the game
“The team picked me up big time. Obviously getting out to a 3-0 lead like that….
“Can I apologize to every coach I’ve had in my entire life? I mean, I haven’t even gotten text-messages from the coach that always text-messages me after games, because he’s probably so pissed. I mean, it was like I blacked out, I woke up, and the ball was in left field. And I’m like, oh my god.
“You can’t let a big-league team back in the game like that. Just a … I mean, one of those plays that, as you’re making it, you’re like, what the hell am I doing? But C.J. was there, I just threw it in the crapper.”
On his performance
“Other than that play, I felt like I was in control. I was jumping ahead of guys and catching both sides of the plate. Anytime I can do that, I can have some success.”
More on the play
“It’s one of those things where you don’t even need a coach to tell you what you did wrong. Coach, manager, whatever it is, you don’t even need them to come up to you. Just one of those … I mean, I literally have never made that play in my life. It’s one of those where, I mean, we won, and I’m happy, but I feel like we lost, because I feel like I let that team back in the game when we had them down. Obviously to me, I’m not even letting that go. It’s going to stick with me awhile.
“But whatever. We won the game. And the dudes came back even after that and got a couple more runs.”
After they gave you another lead, determined to make it stand?
“I was always determined to make it stand (laughter). I just … as the ball hit my hand, it clicked in my head, ‘Triple play,’ because it was hit so hard right to me. And like I said, C.J. was at the bag, on the way. I just … argh … I babied the throw. Yippage, a little yips. But I mean, if I make the throw, who knows what would have happened? You’ve just got to take the two outs. You’ve got to throw it to second base and let the infielders do their thing.”
So you were actually thinking about going for a triple play?
(sighs) “Yeah. Let’s just leave it at that. Triple play.” (laughter)
Tough to focus afterward because you made the mistake?
“Not at all. Those kind of things happen, whether an infielder threw a ball in the stands, or whatever it is. A guy drops a pop fly. I mean, you’ve got to get out of those situations. Even me giving up the base hit after that, the broken-bat base hit down the line, it’s just the baseball gods slapping me in the face. Once again, what the hell were you doing? The third run crosses, I’m like, you know what? I deserved that? Take a deep breath and you recover. It’s a tied game after that.”
**CHRIS JOHNSON
On his homer
“Two-out hitting is clutch hitting, and we’re glad we can do that. But we’re mainly just glad we got the win and evened the series, so we can try to get the W and win the series tomorrow.”
Big to win after losing both games in doubleheader Tuesday?
“Yeah, they kicked our butts yesterday, so it was good to come back out here today and get a win, put ourselves in the spot we want to be, to win the series.”
Medlen surprise you with the throw to third?
“Yeah, that was a little surprising. But he wanted to turn a triple-play out of it. I’m not sure what he was thinking. He’s a really good athlete out there, too. You can’t be surprised at anything he does out there, because he’s such a good athlete.”
You were actually there to cover the base
“Yeah, I was headed that way. I always head that way when the ball’s back to the pitcher. I thought he’d throw to second, but hey, that’s part of the game. He took a chance. We’ll talk about it.”
On facing winless Marcum, after facing Harvey and Wheeler Tuesday
“(Marcum) has done really well against us this year. So not to take anything away from him, he’s a pretty good pitcher. But those guys were tough yesterday. They did really well and we didn’t get much going against either of those two big dogs. We’ve got to learn, though, because we’re going to face them again, and a lot, probably.”
On the home run
“It felt good. Not just because of the homer, but because there were some guys on base. I like to drive some guys in. If it goes out of the ballpark to do it, then that’s fine. I was just looking to get a big hit right there.”
