Julio Teheran’s alarming first-inning performance this season might not be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but it’s nonetheless difficult to figure out.
The Braves’ five-time opening-day starter and two-time former All-Star has not pitched like either of those descriptions in a majority of starts this season, and the first-inning woes are a big reason for his struggles.
After giving up a first-inning grand slam to Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo in Saturday’s 7-5 loss to the Orioles, Teheran has allowed 15 earned runs in the first inning of his 15 starts for a 9.00 ERA. The fourth inning (10) is the only other in which he’s allowed more than five runs.
He’s allowed 13 walks in the first inning and hasn’t walked more than eight in any other inning. Five of his 15 homers allowed have come in the first inning.
“Probably the walks,” Teheran said Saturday when asked what was causing him so much trouble in the opening inning. “I get behind in counts and get walks, that makes it hard to get back sometimes. It was a bad day. I had my stuff but it was kind of different the two innings when I got in trouble and couldn’t get out of (jams). They scored the seven runs in those two innings.”
He gave up all the Orioles runs and didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, replaced after Chris Davis’ two-out, bases-loaded double high off the brick wall in right-center. A few more feet and Teheran (5-5, 4.52 ERA) would’ve been saddled with a second grand slam Saturday.
But it was the first inning when the tone was set. Even if the Braves have shown all season that they’re more than capable of coming back from early deficits, to expect them to keep winning that way is asking a bit too much.
The Orioles apparently had a good scouting report on Teheran: In the first inning, Colby Rasmus drew a leadoff walk, Adams Jones doubled and Manny Machado walked to load the bases with none out for cleanup hitter Trumbo, who cleared them with his seventh homer on a 93-mph fastball that Teheran left over the plate ahead in the count, 1-2.
Teheran retired 12 of the next 13 batters including striking out all three in the fourth on 12 pitches.
But his momentum ended abruptly in the fifth inning when pitcher Dylan Bundy led off with a single that snuck through the right side of the infield under the glove of diving first baseman Freddie Freeman and just beyond the glove of diving second baseman Ozzie Albies.
Rasmus and Jones followed with singles to load the bases before Teheran got Machado on a line-out to left and struck out Trumbo looking for the second out. But just when it looked like Teheran might escape this bases-loaded jam, Davis doubled and the lead mushroomed to six runs.
There have been reduced-velocity concerns in several starts by Teheran lately, but on Saturday he threw as hard as he has in two seasons, throwing fastballs at 93-95 mph early. In fact, he might’ve been throwing a little too hard for his own good, Teheran said.
He’s found he’s more successful when he’s got the fastball working at 91-92 mph and he focuses more on location and mixing in all his pitches.
“It’s different when my fastball is getting up (in mph) pretty good, it kind of gets me excited,” he said. “You’ve got to concentrate and make pitches instead of just throwing the ball. I don’t like to be up there just throwing the ball as hard as I can. That’s not pitching. The first couple of hitters I got in trouble trying to throw as hard as I can. After that I set everything up and started making better pitches.”
