Braves, Wilson airmail chances in G1

April 26th, 2021

ATLANTA -- While the Braves had a chance to immediately distance themselves from the 5-0 loss sustained to the D-backs in the first game of Sunday’s seven-inning doubleheader at Truist Park, Bryse Wilson will have to spend the next few days dwelling on a frustrating outing.

Freddie Freeman’s one-out single in the sixth accounted for the Braves’ lone hit of the game. Gallen escaped that inning with a ground-ball double play off the bat of Marcell Ozuna and then got through the seventh unscathed to notch his first career shutout. 

Wilson surrendered two home runs, airmailed a couple errant pickoff attempts and allowed three earned runs over four innings. The 23-year-old right-hander wasn’t as efficient as he had been while throwing five solid innings in his season debut April 18 at Wrigley Field.

“He gave up a couple homers,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “In between that, he was just all right. It was just OK.”

Stephen Vogt drilled a two-run homer in the second inning and Kole Calhoun added a solo homer in the third. Wilson’s presence has aided a rotation that is missing two of its past National League Cy Young Award candidates, Max Fried and Mike Soroka, who are both on the injured list.

“For me, I’ve just got to move on to the next one,” Wilson said. “I’ve got to take the good out of it. I threw two bad pitches over the plate and they made me pay for it.”

With Gallen cruising and his team trailing, Snitker chose to keep his top relief options available for the second game. This created the opportunity for the D-backs to score a pair of runs in the fifth against Grant Dayton to account for the final margin.