The Brewers had just one hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position Monday, which was one more than the Braves had and enough to spoil opening day for Julio Teheran and his teammates.
Aramis Ramirez’s two-run double with none out in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie and sent the Brewers to a 2-0 win Game No. 1 at Miller Park, the fifth time they’ve shut out the Braves in their past seven meetings.
Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo held Atlanta to four hits in six innings and the Braves failed to score after their leadoff hitter reached base in the first and second innings, or after Chris Johnson’s one-out double in the sixth. They also had two runners on with two out in the fifth when No. 2 hitter B.J. Upton struck out for the second time.
“They’ve got some good pitchers, some good arms,” said Johnson, who saw them plenty when he played with the Astros. “You get some guys who are just up there throwing the ball, but these guys know how to pitch. (Catcher Jonathan) Lucroy knows how to call a good game and they’re tough, especially tough in their home ballpark.”
The loss was the ninth in 11 games for the Braves at Miller Park since the beginning of the 2011 season. Andrelton Simmons had two of the Braves’ five hits.
Teheran wasn’t sharp and found himself in tight spots for most of his six innings, allowing seven hits and a walk. But he managed to work out of several jams — and got a break with poor Brewers baserunning — until the fourth, when he walked shortstop Jean Segura on four pitches to start the inning.
“My pitches didn’t work like they usually work,” said Teheran, who struggled particularly with his sinker.
Ryan Braun followed Segura with a single that put runners on the corners. After Braun stole second base, Ramirez doubled to left field to drive in both runners for a 2-0 lead.
“The fastball in to Ramirez was maybe not the best pitch to throw in hindsight,” Braves catcher Evan Gattis said. “I thought it was the right call at the time and it wasn’t. … That cost us. Just like that. The wrong pitches, whatever, that can cost you.”
Teheran lost a 2-0 game in his only previous start against the Brewers, coming last season on June 21 at Miller Park. It was the first opening-day start at any level of professional baseball for the Braves right-hander, who was thrust into the assignment after planned opening-day starter Kris Medlen blew out his elbow March 9 and had season-ending surgery.
“I was battling the whole game,” Teheran said. “I just had the one bad inning where I couldn’t get out of trouble.”
It was the first win in five opening-day starts for Gallardo and continued his career-long success against Atlanta. The right-hander improved to 5-1 with a 1.79 ERA in eight starts against the Braves, including 4-0 in five starts at Miller Park.
“I’ve never seen him pitch bad,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He’s one of those guys where he gets some people on base and he makes pitches. He gets tough, he doesn’t give in. We expanded the strike zone a couple of times and helped him out. But he’s a tough at-bat against, really.”
The Braves went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Gallardo and left seven runners on base in the game. Jason Heyward singled to lead off the game, but then B.J. Upton grounded out, Freddie Freeman and Johnson flied out.
“It’s opening day, everybody’s got a little first-day jitters,” Braves second baseman Dan Uggla said. “I’m sure (Gallardo) did too. You’re not human if you don’t. But he looked a little — I don’t want to say rocky or shaky — but he looked a little whatever in the first inning, was falling behind a couple of hitters.
“But then he kind of fell into a nice little groove and made some pitches. We were just a knock away, just never got anything going today.”
The Braves fell to 22-27 in season openers since moving to Atlanta in 1966, including 10-17 on the road. They’ve opened on the road in eight of the past 10 seasons.
Carlos Gomez hit Teheran’s first pitch of the day for a single and went to second on left fielder Justin Upton’s error. Gomez then inexplicably tried to advance to third on the play, apparently believing Upton could be caught off-guard. But Gomez was thrown out easily at third by Upton.
That made it consecutive at-bats against the Braves that had highly unusual endings for Gomez, the flamboyant slugger who had a face-to-face confrontation with Brian McCann halfway up the third-base line on Sept. 25 when McCann took offense to Gomez trash-talking during his entire trot around the bases on a homer off Paul Maholm.
