Julio Teheran lost his first game at home Wednesday afternoon against the Dodgers. Ironically, he pitched better Wednesday that he had in some of his six wins.
He tied a career high with 11 strikeouts and allowed three runs on six hits over seven innings. He also picked off Yasmani Grandal at second to end the second inning. He ranks second in the major leagues in pickoffs, with five.
“The whole game I feel really good,” Teheran said. “You can see the number of strikeouts that I did today. Everything was working today. … My slider was good. I hear that my fastball was coming out really good from my hand.”
Entering the game Teheran ranked 22nd in the majors with a 4.6 run-support average. He could have used some of that against Los Angeles.
“Julio was great. Giving up three runs, we’d like to give him a win,” Chris Johnson said. “But tip your cap to their guy. He was pretty good. He kept us off-balance, threw a lot of off-speed and we just couldn’t make the adjustments.”
Braves’ bats mustered one run on three hits against Mike Bolsinger (5-3, 2.79 ERA) in Los Angeles’ 3-1 win. Teheran (6-5, 4.49 ERA) fell to 5-1 at home with a 2.37 ERA.
“It might have been his best outing he had all year, and he got an ‘L’ for it,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But that’s baseball. It’s a real cruel game that we play.”
