The Arizona Diamondbacks struck early against Bryse Wilson while Zac Gallen carried a no-hitter into the sixth in a 5-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Wilson cruised through the first inning but ran into trouble in the second when he walked leadoff man Josh VanMeter to begin the inning. VanMeter moved all the way to third on an errant pick off throw and then scored on a long two-run home run by Stephen Vogt. Arizona tacked on another run in the third when Kole Calhoun connected on a 2-1 pitch and drove it out to right to make it 3-0.
Wilson worked a scoreless fourth and then exited having allowed four hits and three runs in four innings. He struck out four and walked two. Wilson actually had two errors on pick off attempts and nearly had a third but Dansby Swanson did a really nice job snagging the throw while getting the tag down.
El Mago-esque tag from Dansby pic.twitter.com/0eQiMII6Fl
— Bally Sports South (@BallySportsSO) April 25, 2021
Swanson appeared to tweak his wrist on the tag. He stayed in the game to hit in the bottom half of the inning but then was replaced by Ehire Adrianza.
Grant Dayton replaced Wilson in the fifth and allowed a one-out triple to Pavin Smith that caromed high off the wall in right center. Dayton then walked Calhoun and allowed a run-scoring single to Eduardo Escobar to extend the lead to 4-0. Dayton got David Peralta to fly out to right for the second out but then allowed a single to VanMeter that scored Calhoun to make it 5-0.
Gallen was in complete control and held Atlanta’s offense hitless through the first five 1/3 innings. Gallen hit Ronald Acuña Jr. in the hand to lead off the game, issued a walk to Austin Riley in the second inning to account for all of the Braves’ baserunners through five innings.
Zac Gallen, Dirty back to back Knuckle Curves. pic.twitter.com/dQhdwiCy2v
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 25, 2021
Gallen issued a one-out walk to Acuña in the sixth before Freddie Freeman broke up the no-hitter with a single to center to put runners at the corners with just one out. However, Gallen got Marcell Ozuna to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.
MVFree says to the no-hitter pic.twitter.com/MEn4Lhqske
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) April 25, 2021
Gallen was pretty much in control from the outset. He allowed just one hit, two walks and hit a batter over seven scoreless innings to go along with six strikeouts.
With the loss, Atlanta drops to 9-11 on the season. They will hope for better results in Game 2 with Drew Smyly matching up against Madison Bumgarner.