Turner Field continued to be Julio Teheran’s happy place, and a couple of old guys pounded out home runs again for the Braves. That and some solid bullpen work was all that was needed for a 2-1 win Friday night in a series opener against the woeful Philadelphia Phillies.
Teheran (6-4) allowed seven hits and one unearned run in seven innings, and Jonny Gomes and Juan Uribe homered for the Braves, who’ve won three in a row to move back to within two games of .500.
The disparity in Teheran’s home and road performances has been mind-boggling: He’s 5-0 with a 2.04 ERA in eight home starts, and 1-4 with a 7.40 ERA in nine road starts.
“It feels a little bit special with the crowd and being at home,” he said. “I mean, I wish I could get this field and take it with me.”
Teheran had three walks and four strikeouts Friday, threw 71 strikes in 110 pitches, and got the win after Uribe led off the seventh inning with a homer to put the Braves back ahead, 2-1.
“The way he pitched tonight, he didn’t need too much run support,” Gomes said. “Not very often solo home runs win games, but if you hit more solo home runs than them, they will.”
Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan, from Kell High School in Marietta, was impressive in his second major league start, as he had been in beating the Cardinals on June 21. On Friday, he allowed five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in seven innings.
But two of those hits were first-pitch homers by a couple of veterans against whom it’s difficult to sneak past a modest fastball (Gomes) or a hanging slider (Uribe). Uribe has four homers in his past six games.
“Uribe’s swinging the bat,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Big one there. and Jonny Gomes against left-handed pitching — that’s what Jonny’s here for. He gives you good at-bats, gives you great energy, great effort.”
Luis Avilan and Jim Johnson pitched a scoreless inning apiece for the Braves, with Johnson handling the ninth and recording his fifth save after closer Jason Grilli pitched the previous two nights.
“Really good outing (by Teheran),” Gonzalez said. “And especially against a predominantly left-handed hitting lineup. He did a terrific job. And also getting the last out there in the seventh inning was big. Real pleased about his outing. Real pleased about the way he went about it. And hopefully we can build on that.”
Then again, pitching at home hasn’t been a problem whatsoever for Teheran. The extreme disparity in his home and road performances has been one of the mysteries of the first half-season for the Braves, and it continued unabated when he turned in another strong start in front of a crowd of 33,090.
Teheran has allowed 34 hits, three homers and 12 earned runs in 53 innings in eight starts at Turner Field, while he’s been knocked around on the road to the tune of 73 hits, 11 homers and 40 earned runs in 48 2/3 innings.
“It’s one of those things you can’t explain,” Gonzalez said, then smiled before adding, “Maybe we’ll fly him in the day of his (next road) start, just fly him in that day. Let him sleep in his bed, maybe that will help. But yeah and it’s one of those numbers that you look at and scratch your head.”
Teheran is 2-3 with a 5.29 ERA in his past eight starts, but within that span he’s 2-0 with a 2.22 ERA in four home starts. He’s given up six earned runs in each of his past two road starts, and no earned runs in each of his past two home starts. It’s like Teheran has an evil twin making road trips, and the 2014 All-Star version doing the pitching at home.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Teheran said. “I’m just happy that I did my job today, and I’ll try to keep going.”
Gomes staked him to an early lead when he drove a ball to the left-center pavilion seats with one out in the second. It was the fourth homer and first since May 3 for the veteran, who crushed an 89-mph fastball.
“That young lefty had some good stuff tonight, kept our guys off-balance,” Gomes said. “Juan and I were able to have two good swings…. I was sitting dead-red fastball first pitch, and got it. He left it up a little bit. One of those trick at-bats — haven’t play in a while, (opponent thinks Gomes) might be seeing some pitches, and I just wanted to jump on him early.”
Morgan got 13 outs in the next 13 batters, giving up only a walk in that span to Nick Markakis leading off the fourth, and erasing him by inducing an inning-ending double-play grounder from Uribe.
Cameron Maybin’s two-out double in the sixth was the third hit of the night for the Braves, and Markakis followed with a walk. With runners at second and third after a wild pitch, Chris Johnson grounded out softly to end the inning. Johnson entered Friday with a .237 average, but was 14-for-36 (.400) against lefties before going 0-for-3 against Morgan.
Morgan helped the Phillies tie the score in the fifth, after leading off with what was initially ruled an infield single. Second baseman Jace Peterson had to hurry to field the soft grounder and throw from close range to first baseman Johnson. The throw was a bit high and Johnson, filling in for injured Freddie Freeman, failed to catch it.
After the inning the official scorer changed the ruling to an error on Peterson. Morgan’s would-be first major league hit was erased, but he was not. He advanced on a sacrifice bunt and scored the tying run on a single by Cesar Hernandez, who was thrown out by right fielder Markakis trying to stretch the hit to a double. That proved costly for Philly when Maikel Franco followed with a double before Ryan Howard’s inning-ending groundout
Morgan graduated from Kell High and attended the University of Alabama before the Phillies selected him in the third round of the 2011 draft. He was fifth-ranked prospect in the organization after 2012, when he posted a 3.35 ERA with 169 strikeouts in 158 2/3 innings in his first full season of pro ball.
But his career stalled and he missed the 2014 season recovering from shoulder surgery. Morgan was 0-6 with a 4.74 ERA in 13 starts this season in Triple-A before getting called up and pitching well in his debut, limiting the Cardinals to six hits and one run in 5 2/3 innings. That was his last game before facing the Braves on 11 days’ rest.
