DENVER (AP) — Matt Wisler felt great about his first five innings Saturday night. Things went south for the Atlanta Braves right-hander in the sixth.
Wisler allowed just two hits and one mistake through five, but the Colorado Rockies roughed him up in the sixth on their way to an 8-4 win over the Braves.
“I was really pleased with that first five innings,” Atlanta interim manager Brian Snitker said. “He was really good. He was on the attack, he was using his changeup better and more, which is what we wanted him to do. Into that one inning, it just seemed like he’d been rattled.”
Before the sixth, his only mistake was leaving a breaking ball out over the plate to Trevor Story, who hit it 430 feet to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead in the second inning.
Wisler (4-10) was sharp following a 47-minute rain delay after the second inning, allowing a harmless single to Story in the fourth before the Rockies jumped on him in the sixth.
After getting the first out, he walked DJ LeMahieu and then allowed four straight hits, the last of which was a two-run single by Story that gave Colorado a 5-3 lead.
“The first five innings were probably the best I’ve thrown in a long time,” Wisler said. “In just a minute, the sixth inning fell apart.”
Story added a second home run to set an NL rookie record for shortstops with 26 homers and pass his mentor, Troy Tulowitzki, who had 24 for the Rockies in 2007. Nomar Garciaparra set the major league record for shortstops with 30 for the Boston Red Sox in 1997.
Story, who set career highs in both hits and in RBIs with five, is two behind Wilin Rosario for the franchise mark for homers by a rookie.
“That kid’s the real deal,” Snitker said.
Tyler Anderson (3-3) worked around the rain delay to finish with six strikeouts in six innings as the Rockies beat the Braves for the ninth straight time.
A strong weather cell moved through the area and brought the tarp out after the second inning. Anderson gave up a one-out triple to Freddie Freeman in the third, and he scored on Adonis Garcia’s single to give the Braves a 3-2 lead.
Wisler, who allowed six runs on six hits, got the Braves on the board first with an RBI single in the second.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: RHP Julio Teheran, who left Friday’s game with tightness in his right lat, underwent a strength test Saturday and checked out fine. Snitker said Teheran could be available for his next scheduled start. “We’ll just wait and see,” Snitker said. “I’m optimistic, but if he can’t, with this off day on Monday, we might be able to get an extra day, too.”
THREE FOR THREE
Freeman tripled for the second straight night and now has six this season. That is the most by a Braves first baseman since they moved to Atlanta in 1966.
UP NEXT
The Braves will send RHP Tyrell Jenkins (0-1, 4.05) against Colorado LHP Tyler Chatwood (8-6, 3.83) in the four-game series finale Sunday. Jenkins is making his third career start, and Chatwood will try to reverse his struggles at Coors Field, where he is 3-6 with a 6.26 ERA in nine starts.
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