The floundering Braves hadn’t won a road series in two months before Wednesday, when they needed to get it done in order to avoid an indignity they hadn’t experienced in a quarter-century.
They finally did something good with relative ease, as Julio Teheran pitched seven strong innings for his 10th win and the Braves pounded out a season-high 18 hits in an 8-1, series-clinching victory over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Michael Bourn led the way with a season-high four hits for the Braves, who won two of three to snap a string of six consecutive series losses and eight road-series losses, their last road-series win coming in Milwaukee July 6-8.
“(Teheran) was in command of the game the whole time in my opinion,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves finished a 2-5 road trip that began with being swept in four games at Washington. “We scored early and kept adding on, that makes for a good baseball game.”
The Braves (56-84) stayed two games ahead of the last-place Phillies in the National League East standings. Atlanta hasn’t been in last place after the All-Star break – alone in last or tied for last – since finishing 65-97 in the NL West in 1990.
Christian Bethancourt added three hits including a homer, 30-year-old Cuban newcomer Hector Olivera had his first three-hit game plus a walk, and Nick Markakis added two hits and two walks for the Braves, who hadn’t collected as many as 15 hits in a game since getting 17 in a 12-inning, 9-8 win against the Giants on Aug. 3.
The last time the Braves had 18 hits in a nine-inning game was in July 2013, also at Philadelphia.
“If feels great to contribute to the team, and then we get a win on top of that,” said Bourn, who hadn’t had much luck with hard-hit balls at defenders since being traded to the Braves, going 9-for-65 (.138) with one extra-base hit in 24 games before Wednesday.
“If you just stay patient the baseball gods will reward you,” Gonzalez said. “Today he got four quality at-bats, hit the ball hard every single time. But he has been almost the whole trip, and today he got rewarded for staying patient and staying with his plan.”
Bourn added, “We were able to take the lead and keep the lead. Julio pitched a great game, and I think that’s the No. 1 thing. When you’ve got the starting pitching like that, you’ve got a chance to stop them and be able to keep getting back in the dugout and keep being aggressive against their pitcher.”
The offensive eruption by the previously moribund offense overshadowed a splendid performance by Teheran, who thrives in the hitter-friendly Philadelphia ballpark that so many other visiting pitchers loathe.
Teheran (10-7) allowed four hits, one run and two walks with four strikeouts in seven innings, continuing his recent success on the road after faring miserably away from Turner Field in the first four months. He’s 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA in his past four road starts, after going 1-5 with a 7.24 ERA in 11 road starts through the end of July.
“That’s the Julio Teheran everybody used to know,” Teheran said. “I know it’s at the end of the year, but I just want to finish strong, and that’s what I’ve been able to do now.”
Teheran struck out Andres Blanco with bases loaded to end the seventh inning and preserve a 6-1 lead. When a Philadelphia writer asked if he was tempted to replace Teheran in that situation, Gonzalez smiled and said, “Have you seen our bullpen?”
Teheran’s past two road wins have come at Citizens Bank Park, where he’s 4-1 with a 1.82 ERA in five career starts.
“Every time I come here it reminds me of when I made my debut,” said Teheran, whose only loss at Philadelphia came in the first start of his career in May 2011.
He’s 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA in four starts at Citizens Bank Park since, all four of those games in the past two seasons.
Teheran is 5-1 with a 1.22 ERA in seven starts against the Phillies – home and away — since the beginning of the 2014 season, including 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three this season.
Beginning with a blown two-run lead in the eighth inning of a July 8 loss against the Brewers, the Braves were 3-27 with a 6.14 ERA and 78 runs in their past 30 road games before Wednesday, when they got a run in the first inning and three in the fourth to build a 4-1 lead against Phillies starter David Buchanan (2-8).
Three of the Braves’ four road wins in 41 games since July 7 have come against the Phillies, the only team in baseball with a worse record than the Braves.
Buchanan, a seventh-round draft pick in 2010 and the first player from Georgia State to play in the major leagues, gave up 10 hits, four runs and three walks in 3 1/3 innings. The right-hander has allowed a staggering 31 hits, 22 earned runs and five homers in just nine total innings over his past three starts.
Bethancourt’s leadoff homer in the fourth inning was the rookie catcher’s second of the season and just the third homer in 10 games for the Braves, who need 14 homers in their last 22 games to avoid totaling fewer than 100 homers for the first time since hitting 96 in 1988.
Freddie Freeman added a two-run single in the fourth to push the lead to 4-1, his first hit in eight at-bats with the bases loaded this season.
“Olivera got three (hits), Nicky (Markakis) got a couple, Freddie got a couple, Bethancourt hit a home run,” Gonzalez said. “Our offense was firing on all cylinders. Now we’ve got a big series at home. I saw the Mets swept Washington. They’ve got a little momentum coming (to Atlanta), and it would sure be fun to get back there and win another series at home.”
The Braves face the NL East-leading Mets in four-game series starting Thursday night at Turner Field, when Shelby Miller (5-13, 2.81 ERA) faces 40-something Mets veteran Bartolo Colon (13-11, 4.18).
