Wisler Dominates, Braves Beat Mets 2-1

By John Buhler | Jun 19, 2015

You could not have asked for a better Major League debut than what the Atlanta Braves got from their starter Matt Wisler tonight. Wisler went 8 innings, allowing one earned run in the Braves 2-1 victory over the rival New York Mets. Matt pitched better than reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom this evening who couldn’t make it out of the eighth inning for Terry Collins.

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Wisler only needed 88 pitches to complete 8 innings tonight. Though he only had 2 strikeouts, Matt got the Mets to ground out 10 times. It was a great pitchers’ duel between Wisler and deGrom. Fortunately, Atlanta had just enough offense to win the ball game.

In the bottom of the 8th, Andrelton Simmons led off the inning with a deep double to left center. He just narrowly missed hitting it over the fence. Eury Perez was able to deliver a solid sacrifice bunt to advance Simmons to third with one out. And then the play of the game happened.

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When Pedro Ciriaco hit a grounder to Wilmer Flores, Simmons was able to distract New York’s SS just long enough to allow Ciriaco to leg out an infield single. With runners on the corners and one out, Jace Peterson delivered a clutch double over Juan Lagares’ head in center to score both Simmons and Ciriaco to make Wisler the pitcher of record and give the Braves a 2-1 lead.

One could argue that Lagares was playing too shallow and that’s why Peterson hit it over his head. But then again, it landed on the warning track in deep centerfield. So just a good piece of hitting for Jace nonetheless.

Closer Jason Grilli came in and recorded his 19th save on the season for the Atlanta Braves. The only base runner to reach on Grilli was Flores who made it to first base on a fielding error by Juan Uribe. The usually sure-handed defender has made two errors in as many games for the Braves. Let’s not make it three in three tomorrow night, Juan.

Just a great win for the Braves tonight. He beat Jacob deGrom on his birthday! The last Braves pitcher to go 8 innings in his Major League debut was John Smoltz way back in 1988. Hopefully, that’s a sign of good things to come for Matt Wisler.

Both Peterson and Simmons led the Braves tonight offensively with two hits apiece. They both seem to hit well in the respective spots in the batting order: Peterson leading off and Simmons hitting 7th. Honestly, I’d put Atlanta middle infielders up against anybody’s in baseball both in the field and at the plate. I might be getting ahead of myself but Atlanta has to good players up the middle.

As always, beating the Mets feels great. And nobody should feel better about tonight’s game than Matt Wisler. Game Two between the Braves and Mets begins tomorrow night at 7:10 PM ET. The starters will be Williams Perez (3-0, 2.29 ERA) for Atlanta and Noah Syndergaard (2-4, 3.76 ERA). It has the makings of a great matchup between two promising young pitchers. Go Braves!

Next: Jace Peterson: Braves' 2B Now and in the Future?

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