Now that the Braves are mercifully done with their obligated visits to Nationals Park, where they won just once this year after losing every game in 2015, they're home, rested and ready to face a team (the Mets) a little more to their liking and with the right pitcher on the mound to end a three-game skid courtesy of the dastardly Nats.
Julio Teheran faces Mets rookie Robert Gsellman in tonight’s series-opening tilt at Turner Field, and Teheran enters with a 0.00 ERA and .091 opponents’ average in his past three starts against the Mets, having allowed just seven hits and two walks with 19 strikeouts in 24 scoreless innings in those games.
In two starts against the Mets this season he’s given up six hits with no walks and 14 strikeouts in 17 innings, including a one-hit shutout June 19 at New York.
Teheran is 6-3 with a 2.40 ERA in 13 career games (12 starts) against the Mets, including 4-2 with a 1.51 ERA in his past seven starts against them going back to Aug. 27, 2014.
He’s been back to pre-All-Star break form in his past two starts, after a stretch in which he was slowed by injuries including a thigh infection and a lat strain behind his right shoulder, which eventually required a DL stint.
Teheran is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA and .220 opponents’ average in his past two starts with 15 strikeouts and only two walks in 13 innings. He threw six scoreless innings at Philadelphia on Sunday, allowing five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
Teheran has a 3.16 ERA in 14 starts at Turner Field but only a 1-5 home record to show for the work, the win coming in his last home start Aug. 30 when he limited the Padres to six hits and two runs in seven innings of a 7-3 win. It was only the third time all season that the Braves scored more than two runs while Teheran was in the game in a home start.
Here’s a somewhat-interesting stat to keep in the back of your mind (or to forget immediately or ignore entirely, if you so choose): When Teheran has gone past 105 pitches this season, he’s allowed just a .111 average (2-for-18) with one walk and seven strikeouts in pitches after 105.
His next-lowest average allowed for a section of pitches according to STATS Inc. is .177 (15-for-79) in pitches 16-30.
The opposing pitcher tonight might look familiar, but that’s only because he’s been fitted for one of the heavy-metal wigs the Mets have been issuing several of their starting pitchers the past couple of seasons. Hold on … being told those aren’t wigs, just a like-minded choice of coiffure among young Mets pitchers. My bad.
Anyway, this is just the fourth major league game and third start for Gsellman, who turned 23 in July and was 1-5 with a 5.73 ERA in nine starts at Triple-A Las Vegas before he was called to the majors. He’s had far better success thus far in the big leagues, going 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA in his first two starts, a loss against the Philies and a win at home against the Nationals on Saturday, when he allowed one run, six hits and three walks in six innings with four strikeouts.
• Freeman fuego: The first two months of the season how a fading memory, Freddie Freeman has raised his batting average to .293 with a career-high 73 extra-base hits (career-high six triples, career-high 29 home runs), and ranks third in the NL in OPS (.949) behind the Nationals' Daniel Murphy (.982) and the Cubs' Kris Bryant (.970).
Freeman is fifth in the league in OBP (.392) and tied with the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo for fifth in slugging percentage (.557). His career-best slugging percentage was .501 in 2013, when Freeman set career bests with a .319 average and 109 RBIs and an .897 OPS and finished fifth in the MVP balloting.
In his past 77 games going back to June 13, Freeman has hit ..332 (97-for-292) with a league-leading 53 extra-base hits (five triples, 20 homers), 55 RBIs, 59 runs and a .435 OBP and .668 slugging percentage. The Brave are 35-32 in those games.
In his first 61 games through June 12, he hit .242 with 20 extra-base hits, 18 RBIs, 27 runs and a .336 OBP and .414 slugging percentage. The Braves were 18-43 in those games.
• The great Neko Case had a birthday Thursday. Here's to her soaring talent and badass self.
"HOLD ON, HOLD ON" by Neko Case
The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it's unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time Compared to some I've been around
But I really tried so hard
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
In the end I was the mean girl
Or somebody's in-between girl
Now it's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love
I leave the party at three a.m.
Alone, thank God
With a valium from the bride
It's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love
And that's as real as true love
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"
