Julio Teheran has careened between quite good and decidedly bad all season, with not many stops in the middle ground between those extremes in performance.
In Wednesday’s series finale at Yankee Stadium he was not good, despite 10 strikeouts in five innings.
Teheran gave up five runs in a 6-2 loss to the Yankees, who got a three-run homer from Giancarlo Stanton in the third inning and never looked back en route to their second consecutive win, clinching the series after the Braves had won Monday’s opener.
“You can’t make mistakes against this team, the way that ball flies around (at Yankee Stadium) from right-center over,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “They’re dangerous. He threw the ball really well in spurts. I’m just glad we got five innings out of him.”
Teheran said after the game that he was sick and declined through a team spokesperson to talk with reporters. He sat at his locker stall with a towel over his head, near motionless for a long period as Braves players showered and dressed for their charter flight to Milwaukee
Braves slugger Freddie Freeman left in the fourth inning after being hit above the right elbow an inning earlier by a pitch from CC Sabathia. He was diagnosed with a right-upper arm contusion and said he hoped to return to the lineup Thursday against the Brewers.
Kyle Higashioka also homered off Teheran (6-6) as the Yankees built a 5-0 lead through four innings, before the Braves manufactured a run in the fifth inning and got a two-out homer from Johan Camargo off Sabathia in the sixth.
Teheran gave up five hits and four walks – the 12th time this season he walked at least three – and fell to 2-5 with a 5.56 ERA in his past eight starts. He’s allowed nine homers and 25 walks in 43 2/3 innings over that stretch including at three or more walks in all but one start.
“It’s tough against this club to walk anybody when they can do that damage with one swing of the bat like they can,” Snitker said. “You’ve really got to make pitches and bury the breaking balls. They’re an aggressive hitting club. It’s tough even to get behind because they’re so deep in their bullpen also.”
There aren’t many established pitchers who’ve been as inconsistent as Teheran, who in 17 starts has allowed one or no earned runs six times, but also given up four or more earned runs seven times.
His past four starts have been a microcosm of his season: Six scoreless, hitless innings on June 17 against the Padres; seven runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings on June 23 against the Orioles, and six scoreless innings in which he allowed just two hits Friday at St. Louis to begin a three-game Braves sweep of the Cardinals.
Then Wednesday’s stumble before a sellout crowd of 46,658 at Yankee Stadium.
Teheran entered with the seventh-highest walk rate in the majors and issued his first with two outs in the third, walking Aaron Hicks two batters after giving up a leadoff single to Neil Walker. That brought up Stanton, the former Marlin who had just five hits in 36 previous at-bats against Teheran, albeit with three homers.
Make that four homers.
Facing Stanton with two on and two outs, Teheran got ahead 0-2 on a couple of 94-mph fastballs, one that Stanton swung at and missed and the next fouled back. When Teheran threw him a third consecutive four-seam fastball and left it over the outer half of the plate, Stanton crushed it, driving it the other way to the right-field bleachers for his 21st home run to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead.
Teheran had two walks and two strikeouts in the fourth inning, but also gave up a two-out homer to Higashioka, whose three hits in six games this season have all been home runs, including two against the Braves.
Interleague play has not been an enjoyable experience lately for Teheran, who fell to 6-12 with a 5.51 ERA in 23 career starts against American League teams, including 4-10 with a 6.18 ERA in 17 since the beginning of 2015.
He’s 0-2 with a 12.54 ERA in two starts against the Yankees.
Aaron Judge added his 24th homer of the season for the Yankees when he took Luiz Gohara deep in the seventh inning. Gohara was recalled from Triple-A on Wednesday and allowed one hit, one run and no walks while striking out three in two innings.
Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino pitched a scoreless eighth inning, allowing one hit with no strikeouts in his first game back from a stint on the disabled list for shoulder inflammation.
