MILWAUKEE – The Brewers had only one hit with runners in scoring position Monday, but that was one more than the Braves 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 in the season opener at Miller Park, the fifth time they’ve shut out the Braves in their past seven meetings.
Yovani Gallardo held the Braves to four hits in six innings, and the Braves failed to score after their leadoff hitter reached in the first and second innings, or after Chris Johnson’s one-out double in the sixth. They also had two runners on in the fifth when No. 2 hitter B.J. Upton struck out to end the inning.
“They’ve got some good pitchers, some good arms,” said Johnson, who saw them plenty when he was 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 Milwaukee 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 of work, 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 inning, when he walked Jean Segura on four pitches to start the inning.
Ryan Braun followed 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 in a 2-0 game in his only previous start against the Brewers, last season on June 21 at Miller Park. It was the first opening-day start at any level of pro ball 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.
“My pitches didn’t work like they usually work,” said Teheran, who couldn’t get his sinker to move like it did during spring training. “I was trying to compete using what I had working…. I was battling the whole game. 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 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.
Braves second baseman Dan Uggla, who hit three balls hard but got no hits, was asked about being shut out in five of the past seven games against the Brewers.
“Just a baseball thing,” he said. “We as players don’t look too much into that. Like, I had no idea they had done that to us until you just said it. We always look at each game like we’re going to go out and win it. We don’t look at what happened last year or the day before. You go out and try to win the game.”
Uggla said these early season games are more important than some people seem to believe. Especially when the Braves’ only healthy incumbent starter is on the mound.
“Yeah, I mean regardless of the injuries we’ve had with our staff, I’ve always put a lot of importance on these early games,” Uggla said. “Everyone’s always like, ‘It’s early, it’s early,’ but…. And Julio pitched great. He pitched good enough for us to win. All these games are important early on, man. But they got a big hit when they needed it and made pitches when they needed to and made a play when they needed to.”
Carlos Gomez hit Teheran’s first pitch of the season for a single and went to second on left fielder Justin Upton’s error on the play. But Gomez inexplicably tried to advance to third base on the play, apparently believing he Upton could be caught off-guard as Upton casually returned the ball to the infield. 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 and preening during his entire trot around the bases on a home run hit off Paul Maholm.
For the Braves, the only win Monday came on their first challenge of an umpire’s call under the new replay system. Ryan Braun hit a soft grounder to third baseman Chris Johnson to start the sixth inning, and first-base umpire Greg Gibson called Braun safe on a close play. Gonzalez challenged the call and after reviewing replays, the call was reversed.
