If there was one aspect of Braves pitching that the team had been able to count on this season — well, other than not scoring runs for Shelby Miller — it was that Julio Teheran would pitch well at home.
Teheran did not pitch well at home Sunday and the bullpen got absolutely pummeled after his fifth-inning exit.
The New York Yankees scored seven runs in the second and third innings for a 7-0 lead and after the Braves got within three, the Yankees exploited their faltering relievers with a nine-run seventh inning for a 20-6 rout that completed a three-game sweep and continued the Evil Empire’s success in Atlanta.
“They just kicked our butts,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “The whole series, they came out swinging the bats well and pitched well. Pretty evident what that lineup is capable of doing and they showed it today.
“As a baseball player, as a competitor, you never want to be part of a game like this — unless you’re on the other side.”
The Braves allowed 20 runs for the first time since a 20-1 loss at Miami on July 1, 2003 — 1,060 games ago — and the 38 runs were the most by an opponent in a three-game series since the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, topping the previous high of 35 runs allowed twice, against the Rockies in a June 1996 series and against the Reds in an April 1977 series.
The Braves have allowed 20 runs eight times in the team’s Atlanta era.
“The whole series was tough,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves have lost 12 of 13. “These guys swing the bats really well, and other than yesterday — (Matt) Wisler pitched really good — today we didn’t pitch at all and we gave up some serious, big numbers. … We haven’t had one of these series in a long time. It’s just tough.”
This is a very bad time for the Braves to face a good team. Any good team.
The Yankees are 17-2 all-time in Atlanta, including 5-0 in two World Series. The Braves have dropped all five regular-season interleague home series against the Yankees and lost eight consecutive games against them at Turner Field.
“We were facing a really good team and they have really good hitters,” Teheran said.
However, the Yankees had scored only 18 runs in their last seven games before coming to Atlanta, including five losses.
All 20 runs allowed by the Braves on Sunday were earned, raising the their bloated ERA to 7.61 during a 1-12 stretch. They have a 12-34 record since their 42-42 start and were completely overmatched in this series.
In just his second loss in 14 home starts, Teheran (9-7) was charged with nine hits, eight runs (tied for his season high) and three walks with four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. Each batter he walked ended up scoring on a two-out homer – a three-run shot by Jacoby Ellsbury in the second and two-run homers by Chris Headley and Stephen Drew in the third.
The Braves scored two runs in the third inning and three in the sixth to pull within 8-5, but Alex Rodriguez’s bases-loaded pinch-hit single in the seventh widened the lead and started an avalanche.
“We get back within three runs and think we’ve got a chance, then they put up a big number,” Gonzalez said. “It’s hard. It’s deflating, demoralizing, but you know what? These guys have done it for 100 and something games and they’ll finish the same way as we started — keep grinding, keep fighting and somehow we’ll figure out how that bullpen shakes out.”
Rodriguez singled on the first pitch thrown by sidearmer Peter Moylan, after the Yankees loaded the bases against left-hander Ross Detwiler, who retired one of the four batters faced.
Moylan was replaced after one pitch and the Yankees pounded reliever Jake Brigham for six hits and a walk in the inning.
With two out in the seventh, the Yankees got five straight hits off Brigham, including a two-run single by former Braves star Brian McCann and a two-run double by Headley (3-for-3, four RBIs). That was followed by a walk and another run-scoring hit off Brigham, who was left in for 1 2/3 innings and was charged with nine hits, eight runs and four walks.
The Yankees outscored the Braves 38-11 in the series, and 28 New York runs came with two outs, including all nine runs scored in the first two innings of Friday’s 15-4 rout and all seven runs scored during the second and third innings Sunday.
“You never want this to happen again,” Freeman said, “so you’ve got to go out there and play, and hopefully contribute as much as you possibly can for it not to happen again.”
Teheran threw 103 pitches (63 strikes) and recorded 13 outs, after rookie starter Williams Perez threw 55 pitches in 1 2/3 innings of a 15-4 loss in Friday’s series opener. Braves starters lasted five innings or fewer in six of the past 10 games.
Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi (14-2) improved to 9-0 in his past 13 starts, giving up 10 hits and five runs in five innings and getting robust run support. Eovaldi entered with the second-best run support in the majors at 7.06 per nine innings pitched, a figure that climbed higher with Sunday’s rout.
Eovaldi is 14-2 with a 4.17 ERA, while Braves starter Miller is 5-11 with both a 2.62 ERA and 2.62 run support – the lowest run support per nine innings for any major league starter.
Teheran was 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 13 home starts before Sunday, and had allowed more than three earned runs just once this season at Turner Field. The eight earned runs were double his previous season-high at home.
He’s allowed five homers in 11 2/3 innings over his past two home starts, after allowing three homers in 77 1/3 innings in his first 12 home starts. Teheran has allowed 24 homers, and only six National League pitchers had allowed more than 24 entering Sunday’s games.
