In his 22nd major league start, the Braves’ promising pitcher Matt Wisler held his own Thursday against maybe the best on the planet, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
But the defense behind Wisler, particularly at third base, wasn’t nearly as good as he was, and the Braves’ 11 hits — 10 against Kershaw — didn’t include enough timely ones after the first inning.
Yasmani Grandal’s double in the 10th inning lifted the Dodgers to a 2-1 win against the Braves in a series finale at Turner Field, Atlanta’s 11th loss in 15 games and second in a row since a four-game winning streak.
After Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino pitched a scoreless ninth inning, Alexi Ogando gave up the winning run in the 10th on consecutive one-out hits by Enrique Hernandez and Grandal. Eric Aybar doubled in the Braves’ 10th, but was stranded at third when Freddie Freeman flied out to end the game.
Wisler got a deserved ovation when he came off the field after throwing a career-high 115 pitches in 6 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, one unearned run and two walks with six strikeouts. If errors hadn’t forced him to throw extra pitches, he might’ve pitched at least seven shutout innings.
The kid was that good.
“He matched pitch-for-pitch one of the premier pitchers in our era, arguably, in Kershaw,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
The Dodgers jumped to a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the first inning, after Corey Seager reached on third baseman Adonis Garcia’s throwing error. He stole second and scored on Joc Pederson’s two-out single.
Garcia already had the worst fielding percentage (.818) among major league third basemen before Thursday, when he made two more errors to give him six.
The Braves had five hits before Kershaw recorded his fourth out — as many or more hits than they had against him in six of his previous eight starts against the Braves, including two in the 2013 division series.
But they came away with only one run in those first two innings, when Aybar and Daniel Castro hit consecutive doubles to start the first inning. Castro’s hit to the left-center gap tied the score 1-1, but he was out trying to stretch it to a triple, and Kershaw retired the next two batters on ground outs.
The Braves began the second inning with three hits — singles by Tyler Flowers, Francoeur and Drew Stubbs — to load the bases with none out. But rookie Mallex Smith struck out and Wisler grounded to second baseman Chase Utley, who made a strong play to start the inning-ending double play. Smith struck out in all three at-bats against Kershaw.
“We had Kershaw on the ropes,” Freeman said. “It seems like every ball we hit, Chase Utley seemed to put a glove on it and catch it and get us out. We had bases loaded, no outs. We had some opportunities. They made the big plays in the field.
“It’s rare that Kershaw gives up nine or 10 hits like he did today. It’s kind of weird that we only got one run, but they made the plays when they needed to.”
Kershaw allowed 10 hits — only the fourth time he’s allowed 10 or more — but only one run and one walk with 10 strikeouts in eight innings.
“If he’s not the best in the game, he’s right there with any of them,” said Stubbs, who had singles in the second and fourth innings. “To bang out (10) hits off of him, that’s getting after it pretty good. Unfortunately we couldn’t push across more than just one run. But we battled.
“I think our record so far this year is not a great indication of how we’ve competed and how we’ve played most of the year. I think we could very easily have a winning record right now. We’ve been in almost every game. We’ve just got to keep moving forward, and I think things will work out in the end.”
Right fielder Jeff Francoeur made a big-time play in a wild seventh inning, preserving the 1-1 tie by fielding Corey Seager’s single and firing a one-hop throw to catcher Tyler Flowers to cut down Kershaw trying to score from second.
Just a few minutes before, Francoeur collided with center fielder Mallex Smith when both pursued Kershaw’s two-out fly ball in right-center. Francoeur called for the ball, but Smith kept coming, and the two were fortunate not to get hurt.
After initially charging a two-base error to Smith, the official scorer changed it to an error against Francoeur, the Braves’ third error in the game and the first by someone other than Garcia.
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