Julio Teheran has spent the past two years on the cusp of the major leagues, getting a taste of the action and little more. For the past two months, he’s shown he belongs.
On Wednesday afternoon Teheran served notice to the rest of the major leagues that he’s a prospect no more by coming four outs from the Braves’ first no-hitter in nearly 20 years.
Teheran didn’t allow a hit until Pirates pinch-hitter Brandon Inge singled to left field with two outs in the eighth inning of a 5-0 win.
“I think today he probably opened up some eyes across the country,” said Braves second baseman Dan Uggla, the first teammate to greet Teheran with a pat on the back as Teheran left to a rousing ovation after the eighth. “Let everyone know that he’s for real.”
Teheran created a buzz on social media, newswires and websites as he bid to become the first Brave to throw a no-hitter since Kent Mercker on April 8, 1994, at Dodger Stadium. Teheran settled for a combined shutout, the Braves’ fifth of the season.
The Braves completed a sweep over the Pirates and took a five-game winning streak to Los Angeles, where they open a four-game series against the Dodgers on Thursday.
Teheran finished with a career-high 11 strikeouts, two walks and two hit batsmen in eight innings. He finished with 107 pitches, 79 of them for strikes, and turned it over to David Carpenter to finish off the Pirates in the ninth.
“He definitely had good enough stuff to throw a no-hitter, just that one pitch,” catcher Gerald Laird said. “Ingy put a good swing on it, but other than that he was terrific today.”
Teheran has been the top prospect of the Braves’ organization for the past three years, rising through the minors on the strength of a mid-90s fastball. But he showed Wednesday how far he has come with the rest of his repertoire, using his slider and curveball to dominate Pirates hitters. He topped out at 95 on his fastball and dipped to 68 with one of his curveballs.
“He can run it up, 93, 94, 95 when he wants to, but he was pitching today,” Uggla said. “Hit his spots. His offspeed was awesome today.”
Teheran has added a two-seam fastball and used it effectively in good work over his past seven starts, but Wednesday he wanted to throw hitters off by going more to his slider instead. He has now gone eight or more innings in two of his past four starts and reached career-highs in strikeouts in each of his past two, with nine strikeouts against the Nationals on Friday and 11 against the Pirates on Wednesday.
“My confidence is the best thing that I have this year,” Teheran said. “I feel good out there. All my pitches are working good.”
It showed in his command of the strike zone. Teheran threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 28 batters he faced. He threw with 21 of his first 24 pitches for strikes in the first three innings, setting the tone for a long day for the Pirates.
Ingle had scouted Teheran from the bench, watching him mix high fastballs with breaking balls down in the zone. With two outs in the eighth, he went up looking for a fastball up and got it 1-1, lining it cleanly to left field.
“Anything that started up — I didn’t care if it was going to be at my eyes — I was going to try to get on top of it,” Inge told reporters. “(That’s) about your only chance when a guy is throwing the way he was today.”
After the hit, a crowd of 28,703 at Turner Field stood and applauded Teheran’s efforts. Teheran got Starling Marte to pop up to end the eighth and was greeted by Uggla and the rest of his teammates with high-fives in front of the Braves’ dugout.
Andrelton Simmons extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a leadoff infield hit in the first inning to help give Teheran a 1-0 lead.
Evan Gattis and Laird hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning to give him more cushion. For Gattis, it was his 13th home run in only 148 at-bats this season, and Laird’s first home run as a Brave. The Braves added two runs in the seventh after Jason Heyward and Chris Johnson had back-to-back singles to start the inning.
Their focus from there was to leave Teheran alone in the dugout, so as not to jinx him, and make sure they were ready on defense. Manager Fredi Gonzalez had inserted both Ramiro Pena and Jordan Schafer as defensive replacements in the eighth.
“The most I’ve gone is eight innings, and today would have been right there,” said Laird, who caught a no-hit bid by Max Scherzer in Detroit. “I figured if he could get through this eighth inning, we had a really good chance. He pretty much was doing what he wanted out there.”
About the only thing to break Teheran’s rhythm was all the Pirates’ pitching changes. Left-hander Wandy Rodriguez had to leave after only 14 pitches with tightness in his left forearm. The Pirates had to piece together the rest of the game with an already taxed bullpen.
