ALEX WOOD
On the matchup:
“those are the kind of things that make baseball fun. it was a lot of fun out there competing against a guy like Fernandez. He’s got electric stuff as we saw tonight. It kind of sucks being on the wrong end of it, but that’s as fun as it gets for me.”
On if about as dominating as you can throw stuff wise:
“You can always do better, but I thought I commanded it well. I think it was my first start where I really commanded the inner half and up and down and kind of had all three going. My fastball I thought was really good tonight. Any time I can command it like that, obviously I think I have a pretty good chance to win.”
On effect competitive had on performance tonight:
“You know going in what you’re going to get out of Fernandez. he’s going to strike some guys out. It’s going to be a low-scoring ballgame, so you know what you’ve got to do. you’ve got to go out there and keep runs off the board and you’ve got to bring your best. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, it’s just baseball. I’m sure we’ll get back out there tomorrow and get back on the winning track.”
On if these are stepping stone starts, last two:
“Maybe a little bit. It’s kind of everything coming together. I feel like my confidence gets better and better every time I go out there and I think my next start is against them too, so it’ll be hard to repeat that one but go out there and compete and keep doing what you know how to do.”
On up close look at Fernandez stuff:
“He’s really good. You go up there, and you just want to make him throw some pitches, try and see as many pitches as you can to try and get his pitch count up because you know he’s going to go deep into a ballgame. I thought I had two good at-bats against him and that’s all you can ask for.”
On if felt adrenaline build as game went on:
“Once you get in the game, I don’t think it has anything really to do with him. For anybody once you start getting on a little bit of a roll, especially through the first couple innings, you kind of start building off your own momentum. You’ve got to go out there and put zeros up every inning. I don’t know how Stanton hit that changeup and pulled it down the line like he did. That ball had to be two or three inches off the plate, which goes to show how good of a hitter he is. You just build off your own momentum and I think he does the same thing.”
On Uggla being position behind bag on McGehee might normally be an out:
“Yeah no doubt I think we probably, we had McGehee played up the middle last night and he hit what would have normally been a base hit but it was an out right to Uggs. And Stanton was just, I don’t know. It’s hard to even say man. Changeup early in the count and that ball maybe could have been down a little bit more, it was still down, but that ball is two inches off the plate. For him to get that good a wood on it and pull it down the line like that, you don’t get any better than that from a hitting standpoint. You can’t take it back because it was a good pitch.”
On if seeing himself as having this kind of K ability:
“Guys like Fernandez that have that wipeout slider they can throw for a strike for an out pitch whenever they want in a count, those guys are going to be your strikeout guys. Typically I try and get early contact. Nights like this when you have all three working and you’re commanding in and out up and down, you’re going to have some strikeouts. When you have days like those, they’re kind of few and far between.”
On chance that’s the only time he’ll have back-to-back 1-0 losses:
“I hope it’s the last time in my career that I lose back-to-back 1-0 games, but it happens. You face a guy like Burnett last week in Philly and you face a guy like Fernandez tonight, it’s just going to happen.”
On if a game like that is fun:
“Oh yeah, no doubt. It sucks to be on the wrong end of it, but from a pitching standpoint it doesn’t get any more fun than that – I think he’ll probably tell you the same thing. That’s like going back to your high school days when you match up against your rival across town. It was a lot of fun especially when you have all three of your pitches working. For me it doesn’t get any better than that, unless you get the win at the end.”
CHRIS JOHNSON
On Fredi saying hitters coming back shaking their heads:
“Yeah, he’s nasty. I think the biggest thing that a lot of us are upset about is the fact that we couldn’t get anything going for Woody. He pitched amazing. We went up against a buzz saw today so it feels bad that we couldn’t get Woody anything going after how he pitched. He pitched amazing.”
On if Fernandez’s slider was what made everything so tough:
“Could have been the 99 he was throwing up there too. Both sides of the dish, 99, slider, it feels like it’s starting in their dugout and ends up on the outside corner. You catch him on a day like that, it’s tough. You can’t miss when he makes a mistake and today we did, so hats off to him.”
On eighth inning rally:
“Yeah we had a chance in the eighth inning but it’s a really tough pinch hit at-bat for Doumit. I don’t know too many guys that can go up there and try to get a knock. Had a good at-bat, put some good swings on the ball. Tonight we just missed those pitches a little bit.”
On that kind of effort from Wood, against that kind of performance:
“Yeah, he was a stud tonight. We have all the confidence in the world against him. We know how good he is and he showed it tonight. He just went up against a tough guy and that guy had our number tonight.”
On best pitching performance you’ve seen:
“Yeah from when I started playing baseball, I don’t think I’ve seen a pitcher that good. It stinks he’s in our division but we’ll have to try to figure him out. Hopefully the more and more we face him, we can try to figure something out and scratch some runs across. If we could have scratched a couple of runs, Woody did a great job.”
On if he got fastball on opposite field hit:
“Yeah…I was able to square it up and get it to right field. It was nice to get that knock. Anything off that guy, anything in play is good, right? It really is. all kidding aside, if you square a ball up off that guy, you go back to the dugout feeling, ‘All right, cool.’ Tough night.”
On what it would take in the future, more experience:
“Not…quite….sure yet. I think for the most part you’ve got to capitalize on his fastballs. He did throw some fastballs that were hittable. He threw some balls that were over the plate. You can’t miss them. If you miss them, and you get two strikes, you either get 99 or you get his slider that’s almost unhittable. You’ve got to capitalize on his mistakes.”
FREDI GONZALEZ
On if as well a pitched game as you’ll see:
“Well, obviously we haven’t seen it in a while. We set a record with 20something strikeouts with no walks, since something like 1914. I think that’s a pretty good statement. Both guys were really really darn good. We needed just one to fall there in the eighth inning. We had some people on base. That’s about as close as we got him to in trouble. Woody matched him pitch for pitch really. It’s a shame for him to lose 1-0. It was just good baseball, pitching wise anyway.”
On if Fernandez was even better than expected:
“Well I’ve seen him pretty darn good. This is the third time we’ve seen him, and you see all the films and stuff from last year. But he is good. He’s got the capability of running those type of games out every time he goes out. He’s got 97, 98, 99 mph early in the game, commands his breaking ball, commands his fastball. Holds runners, you can’t even steal off him. B.J. we tried to see if we could sneak one in there and we did, we got a man in scoring position early in the game (on a balk). He’s pretty darn good. Woody, both of those guys are young guys, and I’m sure you’re going to see them hook up like that for a long time.”
On if Wood stepped up performance knowing what he was up against:
“No, I think that’s the way he pitches. I don’t think Woody cares who he’s facing. He just goes out and gives you those type of performances time after time after time.”
On if fan in you says this is something special to see:
“No. Maybe this is one of those games you watch on ESPN Classic three or four years down the road and you say OK that was nice to see, but you’re just hoping to get your team first and second, somebody break a bat in there and somebody throw one into the seats, and get the W. But it was a good pitched ballgame. You can’t take that away from them. Broke a record.”
On Fernandez getting guys to chase with slider, or for strikes:
“He did everything. He faced nine hitters – not counting Woody, but Doumit, professional hitters, and they’re coming back shaking their heads. I’m sure their side was saying the same thing about Woody. It just happened that the two hits he gave up out of the four were back-to-back. A double by Stanton and a single by McGehee, and that was it.”
On if as dominant he’s seen since Randy Johnson’s perfect game:
“Well you’ve got to go back to Halladay’s game. I saw that one in person. That was a perfect game. Randy Johnson. There’s a couple in your teim in the big leagues you see, pretty dominant games. I haven’t seen two pitchers hook up like they did today since that Doc Halladay, Josh Johnson. One guy went perfect game, the other guy went, I think, two-hitter, and that was one of those classic games. I think this probably ranks right up there also.”
Quotes from the Marlins clubhouse compliments of esteemed Palm Beach Post colleague Tom D’angelo:
MIKE REDMOND
On if it was Fernandez’s best game:
“I think it would be fair to say that was his best pitched game as far as his stuff and his command. He was good. Really good.”
On his breaking ball:
“It’s a tremendous weapon for him. I think it’s one of those things where we’ve talked to him about not using it too much early on and making sure he comes out and uses his fastball to get ahead. But today he got a great fastball-hitting team. And it was a great matchup for him. He was able to throw his breaking ball on a lot of fastball counts and got a lot of swings on it and a lot of strikeouts. Tonight, really both pitchers were on. Fortunately for us we were able to get a run. But it was a fun game.”
On taking him out after eight:
“He did his job. The agonizing would have been had he been around 100 pitches. I think after that runner got on base in the 8th, I knew that was going to be an easier decision. But he pitched great, gave us exactly what we needed after a tough loss last night. In my mind I was hoping he would give us eight innings. He did that. Got a big hit from Giancarlo and Casey McGehee and that was it. That was a great game. There wasn’t a whole lot going on out there offensively for really either side. We were fortunate enough to put a couple good swings on the ball. It was a well pitched game on both sides.”
JOSE FERNANDEZ
On his outing:
“It was really similar to my last start at home. I was locating the fastball which is really big. Salty called a really impressive and amazing game behind the plate. If I checked him twice it was a lot.”
On how bad want to go back in 9th:
“I always want to go out there and complete and help my team. In the heat of the moment I want to go out there. I think they saw something so why not put our closer in the game. He’s one of the best in the game. Go out there and do what he do and he went out there and did what he did.”
On his breaking ball:
“The way Salty was calling the pitches I think is what made my breaking ball good tonight. All my starts I kind of have it like that. He was just amazing back there. I cant explain how good he was…..My breaking ball in the bullpen was horrible, horrible. I thought when they say play ball hopefully its gets better.”
On the Braves:
“The Braves are a good team. They can hit. They can make a mess one through nine. You can’t take it easy because they got some really good hitters and they know what they’re doing. that was the plan, go out there and make good pitches.
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