After being saddled with a no-decision in his return to Atlanta last week, there was no demotion to Gwinnett of the International League for Bryse Wilson this time.
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker kept him around for another trip in the rotation for Wednesday night’s game against Philadelphia, and Wilson responded with his best Major League outing yet.
Atlanta defeated Philadelphia 9-2 to extend its lead to five-and-a-half games in the National League East. Wilson earned his 2nd career Major League win, throwing a career-high six innings. He gave up two runs, both earned, on five hits and two walks. Wilson struck out five in his third Major League start of 2019.
Wilson is 1-0 with a 6.14 ERA for the Braves this season.
“Just to come out and be able to trust my stuff and throw a lot of strikes. Trust my defense behind me and trust the bats to get that lead. That was huge,” Wilson said.
In his previous three appearances with Atlanta this season, Wilson only saw the fifth inning once. That came in his first outing of 2019 against Philadelphia, where he surrendered six runs and six hits in four-and-one-thirds innings.
Wilson also had his first Major League hit with a two-out single to centerfield in the bottom of the third, which sent the Atlanta bench into hysteria. Wilson could have easily had his first hit in his Major League debut at Pittsburgh on August 21, but was thrown out by Gregory Polanco at first base from right field.
Wilson surrendered walks in the first and second inning, but the Phillies never threatened. Bryce Harper grounded into a 6-5-3 double play where Jean Segura was tagged out at second in a rundown. After catcher J.T. Realmuto drew a one-out walk in the 3rd, Wilson set down Jay Bruce and Cesar Hernandez to end the third scoreless.
Realmuto lined a two-out single to right for Philadelphia’s first base hit in the fourth, but Bruce flew out to right to end the inning. Atlanta struck for three runs in the bottom of the fourth, starting with Josh Donaldson’s three-run blast to centerfield.
Wilson surrendered two runs in the sixth, including a solo homer by Harper to left field. After Rhys Harper’s two-out double, Realmuto slammed an RBI single to left to reduce Atlanta’s lead to 3-2.
The Braves responded with six runs in the sixth inning. Austin Riley, who was a teammate of Wilson’s with the Gwinnett Stripers of the AAA International League, starting the frame with a three-run homer to center.
“I got to watch him (Riley) when he was on his run down in Triple-A,” Wilson said. “It was incredible. He had something like 12 homers in 20 games. I think everybody expected him to do well up here. I don’t know if everyone expected him to do this well, but all of his teammates did.”
After Atlanta took a 9-2 lead into the seventh inning, he left the game.
Wilson was promoted from Gwinnett last week to make a start against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field. He threw four-and-one-thirds innings against Chicago. Wilson surrendered six runs off four hits as the Cubs defeated Atlanta 9-7 in the final regular season meeting between the two teams. Atlanta went 6-2 against the Cubs this season.