ATLANTA -- Braves right-hander Matt Wisler has struggled early in games of late, but he found a way to keep his team in the game against Cleveland.
After giving up two runs in first inning of Tuesday night's 5-3 loss to the Indians, Wisler turned in his team-leading 11th quality start and struck out a career-high nine batters, notching a no-decision for his efforts.
"The more he was out there, the better he got, I thought," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "So that's good, that's a positive thing right there in this ballgame. Again, we're talking about a young starter. Every pitch he throws in these games is a learning thing for him, and it's something good, and [he] did a really fine job of keeping that ballgame right there for us to come back, and we did."
Wisler gave up three straight one-out singles in the first, with Jose Ramirez delivering an RBI single for the first run. Francisco Lindor later swiped home on a double steal to make it 2-0.
Wisler settled in after that and retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced.
"I think I started making better pitches," Wisler said. "I think I came out trying to throw the ball aggressively tonight. I think that I just missed with a couple of spots and they put good [bats] on it, found some holes. After that I kind of settled in and started hitting my spots a little better, and I had a little bit better bite to my slider."
Wisler laid down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the sixth to set the stage for Ender Inciarte's two-run single that tied the game, 2-2. But Cleveland struck for three runs in the top of the ninth, and the Braves were unable to come back despite a solo home run by Jace Peterson in the bottom of the inning.