The Braves advanced to back-to-back World Series in the early 1990s on the strength of young pitching. Steve Avery and Mark Wohlers were pitching in their second World Series when they were 22.
But in Game 3 Sunday night in Los Angeles, the Braves dependence on another youth movement came up short when the Dodgers rolled up 10 runs on 22-year-olds Julio Teheran and Alex Wood, the youngest two players on their playoff roster.
Teheran picked the first postseason game of his career to have his worst start. He failed to make it out of the third inning for the first time in 35 career starts while getting pounded for a career-high six runs. For maybe the first time all season, the 22-year-old looked 22.
“He’s young,” said Jason Heyward, who’s young himself at 23, but was playing in his eighth postseason game. “And it’s a new atmosphere for him, a playoff atmosphere. I feel like he threw well. He made some good pitches, but at the same time, if you leave some of the plate they’re going to get hit, especially by a good team that made it this far. He battled. He didn’t shy away from it. I’m proud of him for that. Didn’t have his best stuff this time.”
Teheran wasn’t overly wild. He walked one batter and threw one wild pitch. But he didn’t command his pitches within the strike zone. Of the eight hits he allowed, five of them came with two strikes on the hitter – including Carl Crawford’s three-run home run on a hanging slider in the second inning.
The Braves gave Teheran leads of 2-0 and 4-2 and he watched them both disappear, the latter in the third inning when he gave up four hits – including a Hanley Ramirez double – while recording only two outs.
Teheran had a sold out crowd of 54,646 at Dodger Stadium cheering as manager Fredi Gonzalez came for the ball with two outs in the third inning. Teheran took his cap off and walked dejectedly back to the Braves dugout, where he was greeted by veterans Paul Janish, Jonny Venters and Dan Uggla.
His veteran catcher Brian McCann has supportive things to say after the game as well.
“Julio came out with a really good fastball,” McCann said. “We just didn’t get into a groove tonight. That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s a great pitcher with a tremendous future. He’s going to pitch at the top of the rotation for a long, long time.”
Wood followed Teheran to the mound and got him out of the third inning, stranding two runners on a strikeout. But he rushed a bunt by Carl Crawford off the front of the mound and committed an error that would ultimately cost him four unearned runs. Juan Uribe hit a three-run homer with two outs in the inning.
“It’s a club you can’t make mistakes against,” Gonzalez said. “You can’t have baserunners because they’ve got some guys in the middle of the lineup that can really hurt you.”
