Braves Win Behind Matt Wisler
By Fred Owens
Jul 26, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher
Matt Wisler(37) throws the ball during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports
The Braves win behind Matt Wisler today prevented the sweep and highlighted a bright future for the Braves rotation.
Braves Win
We haven’t been able to say Braves win a lot lately but in the St Louis sunshine Matt Wisler stymied the Cardinal lineup for seven innings and raise his record to 5-1.
After the Braves got two men on but failed to score in the first fans were already bemoaning the possibility of a sweep. Those fears grew after Kolten Wong led off the bottom half with a single and with two out Jason Heyward doubled him to third. Wisler wasn’t ready to allow that, buckling down to strike out the Cards hottest hitter Randall Grichuk to end the threat.
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Michael Wacha struggled to find the plate today and with one out in the second walked Eury Perez. Ryan Lavarnway followed that with a double into left and the fleet footed Perez read the play well and scored from first base giving the Braves the lead.
Jace Peterson walked to keep the pressure on Wacha and Cameron Maybin singled scoring Lavarnway.
With a two run lead in his back pocket Wisler did what a pitcher is supposed to do, put up a shutdown inning on 11 pitches.
Replay: Did they still miss it?
The bottom of the fourth brought controversy and a Cardinal run.
Matt Holliday walked on 4 pitches (2 of which were probably strikes) and Jason Heyward hit into what appeared to be a double play but Peterson couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. Holliday was out but Heyward was on first with a fielder’s choice.
Grichuk followed that with a single to left but a quick retrieval of the ball held Heyward at second. Stephen Piscotty singled sharply to left and Perez came up to throw a perfect strike to Lavarnway who put the tag on Heyward’s right leg as he slid in to home. The call on the field was out but the Cardinals appealed.
After five minutes and eight seconds the call was overturned. Speculation was that Heyward was safe because he wasn’t given a lane but the explanation from New York said that wasn’t a factor. They said that his left foot hit the plate before the tag was made.
Replays shown appeared to show clearly that Heyward’s left leg hit Lavarnway’s chin guard and the tag being applied to his other leg. Even the Cardinal announcers weren’t sounding all that sure that his foot ever touched any part of the plate.
It appears to me that IF his left foot https://tomahawktake.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=76999ever got to the plate it was after the tag. There’s no definitive angle that shows that he did and his left foot is clearly lodged against Lavarnway’s chin guard as the tag is made.. You decide.
Tony Cruz smoked a ball down the third base line but a superb play by Garcia prevented more runs from scoring. After the Braves walked Pete Kozma, Wacha lifted a lazy fly ball to right to end the inning.