After the Braves gave Julio Teheran the kind of run support Tuesday that he’d rarely seen at Turner Field, helping him finally get his first home win, they provided similar support Wednesday night for Matt Wisler, who also had precious few runs to work with previously at home.
Not that he needed many Wednesday: Wisler had his second consecutive dominant start, posting a career-high 10 strikeouts in six innings of an 8-1 win against the Padres. It was the sixth win in 10 games for the Braves and clinched just their third home-series win in 21 series in the final season of baseball at Turner Field.
“He wasn’t as sharp, I didn’t feel, as he was the other night,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said, referring to Thursday at Arizona, where Wisler carried a no-hitter through six innings and allowed two hits and one run in eight innings of a 3-1 win in his first start back after four weeks at Triple-A. “But he had to battle through adversity every now and then tonight and he did a great job, staying in, not giving in, making pitches.”
“To back that one up the other day with this one is a good sign. He’s competing a lot better. The focus is better.”
Unlike with Teheran, the abundance of support runs Wednesday came after Wisler (6-11) left the game. The Braves had a 2-1 lead with bases loaded in the sixth after Dansby Swanson was walked intentionally with Wisler on deck.
The Braves brought in pinch-hitter Gordon Beckham, who fell behind in the count 0-2 but three pitches later lined a double to center field to bring in two runs. Ender Inciarte followed with a two-run single that pushed the lead to 6-1, and the Braves cruised from there, giving Wisler only his second home win in 13 starts.
Wisler threw 110 pitches (71 strikes) and limited the Padres to four hits, one run and three walks. He struck out six of the last 10 batters he faced after Oswaldo Arcia’s home run in the fourth inning trimmed the Braves’ lead to 2-1.
“That was kind of a long at-bat, he got me on a good pitch,” Wisler said of the eight-pitch at-bat, with Arcia homering on a 2-2 sinker. “Tip your cap to him for that. After that I kind of settled in; there wasn’t too many hard-hit balls after that.”
It was a convincing follow-up to Wisler’s performance at Arizona. Watching him pitch twice in the past week, one might never believe he’d been demoted to Triple-A if they hadn’t seen how Wisler struggled before getting sent down.
“Sometimes you need that to fire yourself up,” Beckham said. “It seems like he took it in stride. When he got sent down I know he knew he had to work on some things. I think that he did that. He went down there and started figuring out who he is, and hopefully that’s the last time he ever has to do it. Just go out there and trust his stuff; he’s got good stuff.”
Wisler worked on his change-up and slider at Gwinnett, and on pitching from the stretch. But most importantly, he worked on his aggressiveness.
“Just trying to stay competitive every pitch,” he said. “Sometimes I overthink a pitch instead of going out and trying to attack. So that’s what I’m doing now is trying to compete every pitch, throw everything I’ve got into every pitch and see what happens.
“I think every start from here on out in my career I’ve got to pitch with something to prove. Just go out there and attack hitters.”
Wisler, who’ll be 24 on Sept. 12, showed these past two starts why the Braves are so bullish on his future and expect him to be an important piece of their starting rotation in their new ballpark next season.
Wisler used his career-high 10th strikeout to strand two runners in the sixth inning and protect a 2-1 lead. He struck out Ryan Schimp with a runner on first for the second out of the inning, walked Arcia, then struck out catcher Derek Norris for the third consecutive time.
The Braves failed to score after loading the bases with none out in the fourth inning and a 2-1 lead. Swanson struck out and Wisler grounded into a double play, leaving Atlanta with a majors-worst .196 average with bases loaded and tied for the lead with 11 double plays grounded into in 102 bases-loaded at-bats.
But that average would increase a bit before the night was through.
The fourth inning was the second consecutive inning in which the Braves had effectively let Padres starter Paul Clemens off the hook. Their first four batters in the third inning reached base — Wisler single, Inciarte walk, Adonis Garcia double, Freddie Freeman walk – yet the Braves managed to score just one run in that scenario. After Garcia smashed an RBI double off the left-center wall, there were still two runners on base and none out.
Freeman drew a walk, but ball-four pitch got past Norris and bounced off a padded backstop back toward the catcher, who grabbed the ball and tagged out Inciarte trying to score from third base on the play. Matt Kemp following by hitting into an inning-ending double play.
But the Braves’ bats were just getting warming up, and so was Wisler.
