Braves pitcher Julio Teheran has been dominant this season.
The 25-year-old starter entered Saturday’s game 3-7 with a 2.66 ERA and has been dealing over his last couple of starts, which included a one-hit shutout of the New York Mets on June 19.
The trend continued on Saturday in a high profile matchup against young ace Jacob deGrom.
Teheran held his own and tossed eight innings and didn’t allow a run. He also had seven strikeouts and extended his scoreless streak to a career-high 23 innings.
“This is the best that I have been feeling in my career and I every time I go out there, I try to do my job,” he said. “You just got to keep that mindset and forget about whatever rumors are around.”
Those rumors have been trade requests from other teams. There were scouts in attendance to see him pitch. One of those teams were believed to be the Boston Red Sox, who have been scouting Teheran heavily of late.
However, Teheran doesn’t acknowledge the rumors. He is more concerned on helping the get better as a unit.
“I don’t think about it,” he said. “Obviously there are a lot of comments around but I just try to focus on what I have been doing.”
Teheran’s strong play has impressed his teammates. Centerfielder Ender Inciarte categorized his pitching as nearly impossible to hit from his vantage point.
“From center I see that he is pretty nasty,” Inciarte said. “He is throwing pitches that have a 90 percent chance of not hitting them. Julio was dealing the whole game and you could see it with the way they (Mets batters) were looking.”
In his last 22 starts, since September of 2015, Teheran has held opponents to a .195 batting average and registered a 2.23 ERA during that span.
However, he hasn’t found the run support from his offense. Teheran came into Saturday receiving 2.94 runs of support per nine innings. That wasn’t helped with the Braves offense not scoring against the Mets. As a result, he hasn’t won at Turner Field this season.
“I don’t think about stats,” he said. “I don’t think about numbers. Every time I get to pitch every five days I want to compete. It is the kind of mindset that I want to have.”
Braves interim manager Brian Snitker was impressed with his performance. Yet, he knows the offense needs to step up.
“It was another great outing,” he said. “He battled hard from the first pitch to the last out. He swung the bat and did everything. It is as shame we couldn’t score runs for him.”
He hopes the team can turn it around and grab a series split tomorrow. The Braves are 25-49 on the season.
“It’s tough,” Snitker said. “We have been resilient before and we will get a good night sleep and be back at it tomorrow. It is just one of those things. The guys played a heck of a game.”
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