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 Not only has the trade saved Atlanta a lot of money, it might have
also landed it a future rotation cornerstone.
Wisler improved to 5-1 Sunday with seven solid innings, helping the
Braves edge the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 at sold-out Busch Stadium.
Scattering seven hits in his 100-pitch stint, Wisler gave up both
runs while walking three and fanning three. Not overpowering by any
means, Wisler showed the ability to pitch to all quadrants of the
plate and demonstrated good poise.
"Obviously, I was a little nervous," Wisler said. "I mean, it's the
best team in baseball. They've got a very good lineup, they're very
talented. They can put up runs in a hurry. I was trying to attack
guys the same way I would normal hitters."
Throwing 68 of 100 pitches for strikes, Wisler won his third
straight start and enabled Atlanta (46-52) to avoid a sweep at the
hands of the team with the best overall record (63-35) and best home
record (36-13).
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has been impressed with Wisler's
composure in his seven big league starts.
"He competes," Gonzalez said. "He does a lot of things right. He
fields his position. Really impressive for a young pitcher to be
able to do that in a major league environment and be successful. He
gave us a great outing."
Third baseman Adonis Garcia supplied the tie-breaking run for
Atlanta, belting a leadoff homer in the sixth off Michael Wacha
(11-4). It was the first major league homer for Garcia, a
30-year-old Cuban who cracked only three long balls in 331 at-bats
this year at Triple-A Gwinnett before being called up Saturday.
Gonzalez admitted to not knowing much on Garcia prior to his second
stint with the Braves.
"He's got seven or eight at-bats in the big leagues but I like the
at-bats he's given us," Gonzalez said of Garcia. "He's made some
nice plays at third base so that's a nice addition. We've just got
to find a way to keep him in the lineup somehow."
The result snapped a five-game winning streak for St. Louis, which
failed to take advantage of a spate of scoring chances. The
Cardinals stranded nine men on base, six in scoring position.
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Wacha rebounded from a shaky first two innings in which he threw 51
pitches to record a quality start, yielding five hits and three runs
over six innings with three walks and five strikeouts.
"His outing was a little better than it looked," manager Mike
Matheny said of Wacha. "There were a couple of things which added to
his pitch count. One fly ball which carried uncharacteristically far
cost him and we couldn't get much going offensively."
Atlanta scored twice in the second. Catcher Ryan Lavarnway's RBI
double down the left-field line gave Atlanta its first lead of the
series, and center fielder Cameron Maybin added a two-out,
two-strike, run-scoring single to left.
St. Louis got on the board in the fourth when rookie first baseman
Stephen Piscotty singled home right fielder Jason Heyward.
Originally called out at the plate, Heyward was ruled safe after a
five-minute, eight-second replay review.
Left fielder Matt Holliday evened the score in the fifth, grounding
an RBI double down the right-field line that scored second baseman
Kolten Wong.
NOTES: St. Louis 1B Mark Reynolds (hand) was available to play but
didn't start Sunday and did not get into the game after getting hit
by a 94-mph fastball by Atlanta's Shelby Miller in the third inning
Saturday night. ... Atlanta 1B Freddie Freeman (wrist) made his
first start Sunday after being activated from the 15-day DL
Saturday. Freeman flied out in the seventh inning Saturday night as
a pinch hitter. ... Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia (groin) is penciled
in to come off the 15-day DL and start Tuesday night against
Cincinnati. RHP John Lackey will move back a night to Wednesday.
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