Braves quotes after Sunday’s loss to the Mets

“…eight innings ago he pitched some pretty good baseball. Got himself in some pretty tough situations that we put him behind.”

“We had some opportunities to score some runs. We didn’t get it done and it came back and bit us in the end.”

“He competed all the way to his last hitter. Never gave it. It was nice to see.”

On the errors, giving Mets extra outs when Hale was pitching

“In the first inning we give them that run. Justin just lost it in the sun or the wind, or just didn’t catch it. And it cost (Hale) a run. Overall, though, I thought he did a terrific job overcoming those things.

“It’s a hard one to lose because we played pretty good baseball on this road trip. But again, in the big picture we won two out of three again. Another series. Now we get on the bird and go home and try to keep winning series at home.”

On the wild pitch ending up making such a big difference in the 14th

“It’s always something. Leadoff walk, they bunt him over. We try to put (Schlosser) in the best possible position for him to be successful, and the wild pitch — or passed ball, whatever you want to call it — kind of changes the whole dynamic. Overall, for me it’s not going to diminish the job that he did.”

Trying to set up double play for Schlosser, right?

“Yeah, and it’s a tough situation because when you (intentionally) walk Young there to face Granderson, and Wright keeps coming closer. But you’ve got to do what’s in front of you right now. Maybe Granderson rolls into a double play and we don’t have to face Wright. But overall I thought (Schlosser) did a terrific job.”

On Schlosser going four innings

“He’s been stretched out (in spring to be a starter), so we weren’t worried too much about the pitch count. We were going to get him all the way up to 65, 70. Because he’s gotten stretched out (several) weeks ago. But for a guy who’s sat out – I think the last time he pitched was the series at home against the Mets – he came in and threw strikes, all the way until the end. And got himself a base hit. I didn’t realize, he looks pretty good swinging the bat.”

On extra innings

“In these extra inning games, not only us, every team, everybody wants to hit one out of the ballpark and the next thing you know you go away from your approach and not keep the line moving, and the next thing you know it’s the 15th inning. But we had some opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them.”

**DAVID HALE

On his confidence in getting out of jams

“The sinker helps a lot with that. That’s been a big part of my game the last couple of years.”

On the rotation, whether he thought about this possibly being his last start

“Oh, no, they haven’t told us anything. Just do the best I can and put the ball in their court, see what happens.”

“I wish we could have gotten the win, but I’m pleased with the way I did.”

On the errors giving Mets extra outs

“I want to go out there and get the next out immediately, the guy who makes the error. I mean, stuff happens. It just does. It’s the game of baseball.”

**GERALD LAIRD

On Hale

“He made some pretty good pitches to get out of a first-and-third situation when they had a chance to get the lead. Got some big strikeouts and made some big pitches when he needed. Like I told him, that’s a good outing for you. You didn’t even have your best stuff today but you were able to contribute and give us a chance to win the game and almost pick yourself up a win.”

On losing 4 ½-hour plus game

“That’s one of those games that you want to win. Because being out there that long, you want to take it home with you. But like I said, we won the series. It was a good series for us.”

“But they executed when they needed to. They got a guy on, they bunted him over, and got him over to third and Granderson did a job getting him in. That’s what you’ve got to do, execute late in a game, and they were able to do that.”

**GUS SCHLOSSER

On the late innings, rollercoaster of emotions

“I did the ultimate sin in pitching – leadoff walk. And they end up scoring. That’s how baseball is. They bunted him over, intentionally walk the guy, wild pitch later and all he’s got to do is put the bat on the ball. It was up and down a little bit, but I did the one thing you can’t do there.”

You got stretched out to start in spring training but been a while, did you feel good going into fourth inning you pitched?

“I felt alright. Running the bases a little helped loosen me up, get a little warmer. I felt fine, I just … my command was probably a little off because I haven’t thrown that many pitches in a month.”

**DAN UGGLA

Tough way to end a long day?

“Yeah. Nobody could take the lead for a long time. It was tough to see for both sides in those late innings, hitting. But they were able to get some guys on and get them across.”

The error, just got under your legs?

“Underneath my legs or kick off the heel of my gloves, it’s just one of those plays. It sucks. I make it nine times out of 10 or 99 times out of 100, but today it just ate me up. It sucks, but it definitely happened. There’s nothing you can do about it, just make the play the next time it comes to you. That’s it.”