Five days after a lackluster spring debut, Julio Teheran impressed against the Cardinals in a successful, but short second outing.
Teheran pitched three scoreless innings, allowing two hits, walking one and striking out three in the Braves’ 9-2 win over the Cardinals on Friday.
He threw 40 pitches, 27 for strikes. Teheran hasn’t allowed a run in five innings across two starts.
“Happy with the way I feel,” Teheran said. “Happy with the way the pitches were working today. The slider was better than the first time. I think my command was better. It’s a process and today, my second start, I feel good.”
After retiring Dexter Fowler on a fly out to open the game, Teheran walked Greg Garcia, but got Yadier Molina to ground into a double play.
His second inning consisted of a lineout and two strikeouts. Teheran feels his slider is growing more reliable.
“My slider was the way I’d been working for,” Teheran said. “It’s getting better. Sometimes it gets away from me and I throw a bad one, but it’s getting more consistent.”
The Cardinals’ Adolis Garcia, younger brother of former Braves infielder Adonis Garcia, singled against Teheran with one down in the third. Fowler singled with two outs to put runners at the corners, but Teheran escaped when Garcia lined out to center.
“He’s consciously trying to work on some things that they talked about early in camp,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Teheran. “And I thought he was pretty sharp. … He’s been around what, five, seven years? But it feels like it’s been 10. But he knows what he’s doing, and it’s good that they came in with a plan.”
