PHILADELPHIA – On the way to his career-high 10 strikeouts Wednesday against the Padres, Matt Wisler felt a twinge in his left side in the fifth inning, and again in his sixth and final inning.
Now there’s a good chance that his next scheduled start Monday will either be skipped or at least pushed back two or three days, even if Wisler wants badly to make his next turn as planned.
“Just a little bit of soreness in the side, just take it day by day,” Wisler said. “I want to make my next start and hopefully I will, so we’ll just take it day by day and see what happens, see what the trainers want me to do.”
Braves manager Brian Snitker said team officials will wait to decide who starts Monday’s series opener at Washington. Williams Perez was activated from the disabled list Friday at Philadelphia, but Perez pitched five scoreless innings in his last rehab start Thursday for Triple-A Gwinnett and would be on short rest if he pitched Monday.
Snitker said the Braves plan to keep left-hander Jed Bradley in the bullpen for now, after he was called up to the majors for the first time Thursday.
“Again, we’re kind of in a day-to-day thing, because Matt is still a question mark (Monday),” Snitker said. “Probably a pretty good bet that he’s going to have to miss one, so we’ll just kind of see where we’re at. But I’d like to get (Perez) back out there starting.”
The Braves will start rookie John Gant on Saturday and Julio Teheran in Sunday’s series finale at Philadelphia.
It’s understandable that Wisler would not want to miss a start or even delay one, given how well he’s pitched following a four-week stint in Triple-A after he was sent down at the end of July.
He took a no-hitter to the seventh inning and pitched eight innings of two-hit ball in his first game back at Arizona Aug. 25, and allowed four hits, one run and three walks in six innings (110 pitches) in his 10-strikeout game Wednesday.
Wisler is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA and .125 opponents’ average in two starts since returning from Triple-A, after going 2-6 with a 7.71 ERA and .328 opponents’ average in his last 10 starts before being sent down.
Asked for a bit more about the specific nature of the injury and whether he thought it was an oblique, Wisler said, “Just some tenderness in the side that I felt a little bit during the game, but I could finish the game. It wasn’t enough to keep me out of that game, so hopefully it won’t keep me out of the next one as well.”
Wisler said he first felt the soreness on a fifth-inning pitch to Wil Myers, who struck out to end the inning. Snitker was not aware of the soreness when he sent Wisler back out to pitch the sixth inning, where he gave up a one-out single and two-out walk before striking out Derek Norris to end the inning.
“It wasn’t enough to bother me (in the fifth inning),” Wisler said. “I mean, I felt it, and I felt it a little bit in the sixth inning, but was able to throw through it without it really bothering me or anything like that. So I’m hoping just some soreness the next couple of days and fight through it, then make a start on Monday….
“I’ve been doing treatment a couple of times a day with the trainers. Stay with that program, then see how it goes tomorrow (Saturday). If I can play catch some catch or throw a bullpen tomorrow, get ready for Monday.”
